An Early Classic Bayeta Serape, Navajo, circa 1840,
also known as the de Menil Serape.
An Early Classic Bayeta Serape, Navajo, circa 1840, also known as the de Menil Serape.
The serape measures 71 inches long by 55 inches wide, as woven.
The five sets of vertical green and red rectangles in the top and bottom panels are unique to the de Menil Serape.
Ex- Tony Berlant, Santa Monica. Ex- Christophe de Menil, Houston and New York, from Berlant, 1978. Christophe de Menil is the daughter of Dominique and John de Menil, the co-founders of the Menil Collection, the Rothko Chapel, and the Cy Twombly Pavilion, in Houston.
Ex- Margot and John Ernst, New York. Acquired by the Ernsts from Morning Star Gallery, Santa Fe, 1988. Between 1996 and 2006, the Ernsts were the co-chairs of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, at Bowling Green, New York.
Purchased from Margot and John Ernst, by the current owner, in 2018.
The de Menil Serape is illustrated as Plate VIII, Baer, “Space and Design,” The Magazine Antiques, 1989.
In the de Menil Serape, there are two types of raveled bayeta. One is a dark red. The other is a medium red.
Both the dark and medium red yarns are raveled bayeta piece-dyed with pure lac. In the detail of the center, the dark red bayeta appears as an irregular horizontal shape above the serape’s central diamonds.
The blue yarns are handspun churro fleece dyed in the yarn with indigo. The white yarns are un-dyed handspun Churro fleece.
[Left]
The de Menil Serape, Navajo, circa 1830.
The serape measures 71 inches long by 55 inches wide, as woven.
[Right]
An Early Classic Bayeta Serape, Navajo, circa 1830,
also known as the Big Red Serape.
An Early Classic Bayeta Serape, Navajo, circa 1830, also known as the Big Red Serape.
The serape measures 81 inches long by 53 inches wide, as woven.
In 1974, the Big Red Serape was exhibited in Navajo Blankets From The Collection Of Tony Berlant, at the University of Arizona Museum, in Tucson. The serape is illustrated on the cover, and as Plate 2, in Wheat, Navajo Blankets From The Collection Of Tony Berlant, 1974; the exhibition catalog. In his caption, Wheat dates the serape “1830-1850.”
The Big Red Serape is ex- Tony Berlant, Santa Monica. In 1978, the serape was acquired by Margot and John Ernst, of New York, from Berlant. The serape remained in the Ernsts’ collection for forty-three years. Between 1996 and 2006, the Ernsts were the co-chairs of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, at Bowling Green, in New York City.
In 2021, the serape was acquired from the Ernsts by Joshua Baer & Company, Santa Fe, on behalf of the current owner.
In the Big Red Serape, the red yarns are raveled bayeta piece-dyed with lac. All of the red yarns were raveled from the same bolt of bayeta. The blue yarns are handspun Churro fleece dyed in the yarn with indigo. The white yarns are un-dyed handspun Churro fleece.
