This is a Two Grey Hills dating back to the 1950s, and may have been made by the Mailboy family of the Two Grey Hills area. It measures 56 by 94 inches. The asking price was $3,125.
RB Burnham Trading Post image.
Please click for a larger view.

This article appears with the permission of  the Associated Press:

WRITTEN BY PATRICK WHITEHURST, THE DAILY COURIER

Originally published: WEDNESDAY, 27 MARCH 2013 14:21

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) – Navajo rugs can start at $25 a pop, while others can shoot up into thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat, or the raising of a hand.

Such is the climate at the Indian Art and Navajo Rug Auction, held annually at Prescott’s historic Smoki Museum. Crowds filled the interior of the historic locale for the 2013 event, which marked its 16th year in Prescott. Auctions took place March 15 and 16, following previews that featured hundreds of examples of contemporary and historic Indian art including pottery, baskets, jewelry, Kachinas and other items. On March 16, 300 Navajo weavings were also put on the auction block for buyers to bid on.

Guards were also on hand to protect the merchandise.

Navajo Trader and auctioneer Bruce Burnham is the fourth generation of a family in the trading business.

“I come by it honestly. We’ve been in the trading business since about 1886,” he said. “My daughter is the next generation and her daughter is the sixth generation in our operation, so it’s a family deal.”

The role of a trader, he explained, is to take care of the community itself.

“That’s what got us involved in rug auctions,” Burnham said. “Growing up, I heard my grandfather tell people that if you want a Navajo rug, now is a good time to buy it, because it’s a dying art. It’s not a dying art. There has never been a time you couldn’t open the back of a store and haul out more rugs than you can sell.”

Burnham, along with his partner Hank Blair, considers trading his way to give back to the Navajo community. Burnham himself lives on the Navajo reservation, but travels frequently to sell rugs throughout the United States. Throughout the course of a year, he’ll travel to Los Angeles and as far as Indianapolis to auction rugs.

“We sell over $1 million in rugs every year at auction. Most of which are rugs directly from the weavers,” Burnham said. “We do about 18 auctions a year.”

Funds from each sale go back to the weavers on the Navajo Reservation, he added. Typically, crafters from the Navajo reservation will line up outside his door to receive their earnings the day after an auction, he said.

The nonprofit Smoki Museum’s mission, according to Executive Director Cindy Gresser, is to instill understanding and respect for the indigenous cultures of the Southwest. Funds raised from the auction help the museum operate.

“It’s our major fundraiser. We seek funding from a variety of sources, but this is a major driver for us economically. We put a lot of effort into it and it’s become one of those auctions that’s very well known in the Southwest,” Gresser said.

The auction itself can often go quickly, she said.

“It depends on what the market is, what people are looking for and what they’re buying these days, but generally speaking we sell a very high percentage of our rugs at auction, 50 percent or better,” Gresser said. “We consign a lot of the merchandise through Ogg’s on Cortez. He’s a fixture here in town, probably the best known Indian art expert in this area.”

Merchandise, she said, can range from relatively inexpensive to very costly.

“Here you can get a small Navajo rug, that maybe isn’t in the best condition, but can be restored to something beautiful, up to something worth, literally, tens of thousands of dollars,” Gresser said.

Smoki Museum Docent Linda Young served as chairwoman for the recent rug auction. She has volunteered at the museum for nine years. While art at the auction hails from a number of tribes, rugs hail strictly from the Navajo reservation, she said.

The weekend auction was held in the historic Pueblo building, the original clubhouse for the Smoki people, built in 1931.

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-03-22-13 0705GMT

This article appears with the permission of the Associated Press
Read more: http://www.auctioncentralnews.com/index.php/features/art-design/9465-rug-auction-long-running-outlet-for-navajo-weavers#ixzz2OyazEd8m

We have sold all of the 2012 crop.  No. More. Piñons.  There’s always 2013.  

This rug by Amy Begay was at last week’s auction in Flagstaff. Who knows what great rugs you’ll find at the Eiteljorg auction?

We’ve just learned that the start time for the Eiteljorg Museum auction this Saturday, June 30, in Indianapolis has been moved to 10:30 AM, with the preview starting at 8:30.  That means that if you show up an hour later  at the time originally scheduled, we could be 80 items into the auction.  You could miss Bruce’s story about the bathroom window, you could miss the rug of a life time.  Let’s face it; you’d be disappointed and we don’t want that!

Again, the preview starts at 8:30 and the auction is at 10:30.  We’re sorry for the last minute schedule adjustment and we hope to see you at the Eiteljorg on Saturday!  Questions?  Please contact us.

An adorable model helps Hank Blair auction a small Ye'i weaving by Irene Etcitty. Please click on the picture to see it full size.

Thanks to all of the artists and bidders who made last Saturday a truly great day in Ganado. We saw lots of old friends and there were also many people attending the event for the first time. We’re still tabulating the the results, but we know that this auction once again provided welcome extra income to the artists after a long winter. Proceeds from the auction also help the Friends of Hubbell to provide scholarship money to Navajo college students and contribute to the maintenance of Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site.  You don’t even need to wait until next year for the next Friends of Hubbell auction!  The Summer Native American Arts auction will be held on September 15th.    Click here for more details.

We’ll leave you with a picture of Bruce relaxing post auction with some of the weavers who attended on Saturday.

From left, Rose Yazzie, Jennie Slick, Bruce Burnham, Blake Ambrose and LaVera Blake after the auction.

Click on any picture to see it in high resolution

We have more pictures to the online preview for the March 3rd  Fine Arts Auction.  You can click on any of the pictures above to see a closer view and you can click here to see the part of the catalog where these pieces appear.  Please contact us if you have any questions regarding these or any other items in the auction.

Hover your mouse over the picture for a closer look.

We have just finished uploading the preview catalog for next weeks Fine Arts Auction in Phoenix. Item descriptions and artist information are listed for all of the items and there are pictures of many of them.  Here are some other details on the auction and please contact us if you have questions on any of the items or on any aspect of the auction.

Hover your mouse over the picture for a closer look.

We’ve just finished uploading the online preview for the March 3 Native American Arts Auction being held in Phoenix. Click here to see many more of the lots being offered. Please contact us regarding any items that you are interested in.

Check back next week for more additions to this online preview. We will be adding more photos as we recieve and photograph the remaing pieces of this wonderful collection. We estimate that there will be a total of 250 lots in this auction with only some of these being included in the online preview.  A full catalog will be available for download by February 22, 2012.

We’ll see you in Phoenix on March 3rd!

Hover your mouse over the picture for a closer look.

We are very pleased and excited that our auction coming up in Phoenix on March 3 will feature a very high end private collection.  We know that many collectors will want see the offerings as soon as they can so we’ll be opening the preview at 1:oo PM rather than 3:00 PM on the day of the auction.  Featured artists are

• Hopi carvers Loren Philips, Horace Kayquptewa, C.L. Cleveland, Hoanaie, Neil David and Honyouti
• Potters Dextra Nampeyo, Fannie Nampeyo, Hisi Nampeyo,Tonita Nampeyo, Loren Nampeyo, Sharon Naranjo Garcia and Featherwoman
• Other original artworks by Redwing Nez, Kevin Quannie, Michaelis Burnham and Peter Ray James

We will doing an online preview of the auction starting next week, but we wanted to show you a couple of the pieces in advance so that you can get an idea of the quality of the work in this auction.

Look for much more next week and don’t forget to  stop by and see us at the Friends of Hubbell Auction in Tucson, February 18.  We’ll have more on that auction on Saturday with a picture of Marlowe Katoney’s latest weaving.  Can’t you just hear Bruce asking  ”Alright now watryagonnagimeforit?”

Hover your mouse over the picture for a closer look.

Marlowe Katoney's latest pictorial weaving was among those sold last Saturday.

Our busy 2011 auction schedule has drawn to a close with last Saturday’s Maxwell Museum Auction in Bernalillo, New Mexico.  We continue to be amazed by the innovations of the weavers who bring their work to us.  Marlowe Katoney’s pictorial, seen above, is just one example.   Other weavers attending Saturday’s auction were Bessie Littleben and Zonnie Gilmore. We’re working on our 2012 schedule and we’ll have it posted as soon as possible.  In the meantime, we’ll post some pictures of some memorable moments from this year and we’ll thank all of the weavers and buyers who made this year so great.

Perhaps our youngest attendee at Saturday’s auction was Sunshine Burnham,  daughter of Austin and Ashley Burnham, seen below with her grandmother Virginia and in her new cradleboard, carefully held by Hank Blair.

Sunshine Burnham with Hank Blair

Sunshine Burnham with her grandmother, Virginia

Here’s a quick virtual preview of some of the rugs that we have taken in for tomorrow’s Flagstaff Cultural Partners Auction.  The auction will be held at the beautiful Coconino Center for the Arts, 2300 N. Fort Valley Rd. in Flagstaff.  The preview starts at 9 AM and the auction is at 2 PM.  Here’s a link to the auction page.