78719 Antique Navajo Rug with Tree of Life Pictorial, 02'04 x 03'05.
Woven with reverence and the rhythm of ritual, this antique Navajo Tree of Life pictorial rug blossoms with symbolic grace, echoing stories rooted in both cosmos and earth. Each bird alighting upon its branch is a whisper of sacred song, a spirit messenger resting briefly in the woven world. Rising from the ground in soft vegetal grays, the central tree stands as a conduit between realms—earth below, sky above—a sacred axis around which creation gently unfurls. The weaver, working in the early decades of the 20th century, summoned not only wool and dye, but also generations of prayer, tradition, and vision to shape this living tapestry of harmony.
The birds—arrayed in balanced symmetry, beaks pointed skyward—embody both freedom and return. Their muted feathers in delicate shades of blue, peach, rose, and brown are rendered with the soft palette of early aniline and vegetal dyes, capturing a time of quiet transition when color still emerged from roots, rocks, and bloom. They are more than ornament; they are keepers of cycles, symbols of prayers carried skyward, and reflections of Dine cosmology wherein every being knows its place in the greater circle. The tree, rising from base to crown with branching arms, is the sacred corn stalk and the tree of emergence, growing upward through layers of being into light.
Surrounding this arboreal vision is a border of soft rose pink—a gentle dusk that cradles the design in warm serenity. This frame is not merely aesthetic; it forms a threshold, a ceremonial doorway through which one peers into the mythic and metaphysical. The subtle zigzag accents along the inner edge evoke the sacred mountains or perhaps the protective aura surrounding living things. Each line, each shade, is both measured and meaningful—woven not in haste, but in harmony with the pulse of the loom, the beat of stories older than memory.
More than a textile, this Tree of Life rug is a woven invocation—a hymn to connection, continuity, and the sacred balance between sky and soil. It honors the journey from seed to blossom, from silence to song, and from earthbound form to spirit flight. Through wool and time, it remains rooted in the ancestral winds of the Dinetah, singing softly still with each branch, each bird, and each thread shaped by hands that knew not only how to weave, but how to remember.
- Rendered in variegated shades of beige, pink, gray, tan, brown, peach, rust, baby blue, and black with other accent colors.
- Abrash.
- Handwoven wool.
- Made in America.
- Measures: 02'04 x 03'05.
- Date: 1920's. Early 20th Century.
