An Early Classic Bayeta Poncho Serape, Navajo, circa 1830.
The poncho serape measures 71 inches long by 51 inches wide, as woven.
Between 1830 and 1850, demand for Navajo poncho serapes came from Mexican and Spanish merchants who traveled north to Santa Fe, usually to take advantage of trading opportunities at the northern edge of Mexico’s frontier. In Mexican and Spanish cultures, design complexity was highly valued and design simplicity was considered primitive. Compared to other bayeta poncho serapes woven before 1850, the design elements in this poncho are restrained and understated. Given that this poncho serape was probably woven with either a Mexican or Spanish buyer in mind, its design restraint is an anomaly.
By 1800, red bayeta fabric was a valuable trade item in the southwest, especially in Santa Fe, Taos, the San Luis Valley, and the Chama River Valley. Due to the high cost of acquiring a single bolt of red bayeta, either by barter or outright purchase, the only Navajos weavers who could afford to ravel red yarns from a single bolt of bayeta fabric were weavers with established reputations. Those reputations belonged to weavers with track records of having woven bayeta ponchos and bayeta serapes that had already sold for premium prices. The premium received by a weaver for the poncho she had just finished paid for the bayeta she would ravel and use to weave her next poncho.
There are approximately forty classic bayeta ponchos in museum and private collections. This poncho serape is one of five known examples woven without a striping pattern at its top and bottom edges. The small, dark blue opposing pyramids in the central diamonds—and the red spaces that divide those opposing pyramids—are unique to this poncho.
The poncho serape is ex- David Boyd, San Francisco. Boyd acquired the poncho during the late 1970s. During the early 1980s, when Dr. Joe Ben Wheat, of the University of Colorado, looked at the poncho with Boyd and Mark Winter, Wheat referred to it as “a first phase poncho”—probably due to its simplicity.
Ex- Mark Winter, Rinconada, New Mexico, from Boyd, 2019. Purchased from Winter by Joshua Baer & Company, Santa Fe, 2019, on behalf of the current owner.
The poncho serape is in excellent condition with less than 1% restoration. Corner tassels, side selvages, and top and bottom edge cords are 95% original. Less than 1% of the classic bayeta poncho serapes in museum and private collections survived in comparable condition.
In the poncho serape, the red yarns are raveled bayeta piece-dyed with lac. All of the red yarns were raveled from the same bolt of lac-dyed bayeta. The blue yarns are handspun Churro fleece dyed in the yarn with indigo. The white yarns are un-dyed handspun Churro fleece.
[Center detail]
An Early Classic Bayeta Poncho Serape, Navajo, circa 1830.
[Left]
An Early Classic Bayeta Poncho Serape, Navajo, circa 1830.
The poncho serape measures 71 inches long by 51 inches wide, as woven.
[Right]
An Early Classic Bayeta Poncho Serape, Navajo, circa 1830,
also known as the Yontz Poncho Serape.
An Early Classic Bayeta Poncho Serape, Navajo, circa 1830, also known as the Yontz Poncho Serape.
The poncho serape measures 81 inches long by 53 inches wide, as woven.
The Yontz Poncho Serape is ex- Harry C. Yontz, Cerrillos, New Mexico. Originally from Columbus, Indiana, Yontz (1866-1936) was a practical jeweler and watchmaker.
In 1889, Yontz left Indiana for Garden City, Kansas. Between 1890 and 1903, Yontz repaired and sold jewelry and watches in Lakin, Chantilly, Meade, Arkalon, and Syracuse, Kansas; and in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1903, Yontz opened a jewelry and watch repair store in Cerrillos, New Mexico. Given the history of Yontz’s locations, it would appear that Yontz traveled west from Kansas to Albuquerque, staying for a year or two at a time at various stops along the Atkinson Topeka & Santa Fe’s northern railway line between Kansas City and Albuquerque.
In 1916, Yontz was named Watch Inspector and Superintendent of Time Service for the Atkinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. On June 2, 1916, The Topeka State Journal reported that: “Mr. Yontz's territory will include Santa Fe, Lamy and Los Cerrillos. Heretofore, weekly inspection of watches has been impossible at these points.”
Between 1875 and 1930, the Fred Harvey Company maintained hotels and restaurants at one hundred-mile intervals along the railway lines between Kansas City and Albuquerque. Yontz’s association with the Atkinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway means he probably he acquired the poncho serape from the Fred Harvey Company.
The Yontz poncho serape is illustrated as Plate 85 in Wheat and Hedlund, Blanket Weaving In The Southwest. Wheat and Hedlund date the poncho “1840-1860,” and identify its format as “Diamond network on banded ground.”
The Yontz Poncho Serape is in the collection of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC), in Santa Fe. Until 1978, the poncho serape was in the collection of the Laboratory of Anthropology / Museum of New Mexico, in Santa Fe, by donation from H. C. Yontz. [Catalog #9051/12.]
The poncho is in excellent condition with less than 2% restoration. All corner tassels, side selvages, and top and bottom edge cords have been replaced. Between 1900 and 1930, replacement of the corner tassels, side selvages and top and bottom edge cords of classic bayeta serapes was the standard practice at the Fred Harvey Company’s Indian Department. Present day collectors and dealers often refer to classic serapes and classic chief’s blankets with replaced corner tassels, side selvages, and top and bottom edge cords as having been “Harvey-ized.”
In the Yontz Poncho Serape, the red yarns are raveled bayeta piece-dyed with lac. All of the red yarns were raveled from the same bolt of lac-dyed bayeta. The green yarns are handspun Churro fleece dyed in the yarn with indigo. The blue yarns are also handspun Churro fleece dyed in the yarn with indigo. The white yarns are un-dyed handspun Churro fleece.
