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Crystal Navajo Rugs
Read about Collecting Navajo Rugs, Part 1 | Read about Collecting Navajo Rugs, Part 2 Read Arts of Another Era article There are 33 pieces. Click on thumbnail image to view all available works by that artist. 
J B Moore Cyrstal N... 
JB Moore Crystal Storm with Whirling Logs
$9,500 86" x56" 1920s Published in Western Art Collector, February and March 2008, page 81. T90230-108-102  Order pieceJB Moore Crystal St... 
Navajo Crystal
$4,850 88" x49" Circa 1900Published Western Art Collector, February 2009, Page 173. T2722 Order pieceNavajo Crystal 
Navajo Crystal Quil... 
Navajo Crystal rug ... 
Navajo Crystal Storm Pattern Pictorial Runner with Steers, Hands, Corn, and Manta
$7,500 125" x62" circa 1930 T2921 Order pieceNavajo Crystal Stor... 
Navajo Crystal Stor... 
Navajo Crystal Storm Pattern Rug
$1,150 66.5" x35" circa 1940 J.B. Moore, who owned the trading post at Crystal, New Mexico from 1897-1911, was another visionary trader who exercised enormous influence over early Navajo rug design. Perhaps his most important innovation was to introduce weavers in his region to Oriental rug patterns. Rather than copying wholesale, the Navajo filtered the new patterns through their own cultural sensibilities and personal design preferences. In the process, they drew out specific concepts and motifs, re-synthesizing them into distinctly Navajo designs. Motifs probably derived from oriental rugs include repeated hook shapes (often called latch hooks), the waterbug shaped like an X with a bar through the middle and, in a small number of weavings, rosettes. An even more lasting and fundamental influence was the concept of a large central motif in one, two or three parts, that covers almost all of the ground between the borders. Even the concept of the border itself, usually in two or three layers with at least one in a geometric pattern, is probably traceable to oriental carpet design. Though introduced in the region around Crystal, these motifs and ideas quickly spread to other areas of the Reservation and are found on many rugs woven throughout the past century. Moores influence on Navajo rugs was not only widespread but of long duration. Designs his weavers developed before 1911 were still being made, virtually unchanged, as late as the 1950s. These oriental-influenced patterns are now known as Early Crystal rugs. Those made at the beginning of the century typically featured aniline red with natural whites, browns and greys, while rugs made from the 1920s on tended to rely even more heavily on a wide range of natural wool colors. One of the most popular patterns that likely resulted from Moores work at Crystal was the Storm Pattern. This design is generally defined as a central rectangle connected by zig-zag lines to smaller rectangles in each corner. The storm pattern often is said to have symbolic meaning: the zig-zags are lighting, the corner rectangles are the four sacred mountains of the Navajo or the four directions or the four winds, etc. Nevertheless, the great variety of interpretations suggests that meanings were assigned by Anglo traders and collectors, not by the Navajo themselves. The storm patterns precise origin is uncertain one story suggests it was developed by a trader on the western side of the Reservation but the weavers at Crystal developed this concept into one of the most popular and lasting of all Navajo rug patterns. T90203-129-001 Order pieceNavajo Crystal Stor... 
Navajo Crystal Storm Pattern with Whirling Log Symbols
$2,800 91" x56" c.1930 J B Moore catalog, Plate 28, picture shown. T91876-079-106 Order pieceNavajo Crystal Stor... 
Navajo J. B. Moore ...
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