When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Vintage Huichol (Wixarika) yarn painting, a nierika, on a deep brown ground. Approximately 23 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches.
Made the traditional way: colored yarn laid down strand by strand into a bed of beeswax and pine resin spread across a plywood panel. The reverse is bare plywood with no stitching anywhere, which confirms this is a true pressed yarn painting and not embroidery.
THE SCENEA blue and white arc spans the upper panel, banded with yellow and fringed with white rays. Below it stand two figures, one with a blue head and red plume, the other yellow faced with a headdress, each holding ceremonial candles and prayer arrows. Diamond forms in layered color surround them. At the upper right a four pointed blue and white star radiates wavy white lines. At the lower right a coiled blue serpent sits beside a small house form with a triangular roof, and a small framed motif floats above it. Border in green, cream and pink.
INSCRIPTION ON THE REVERSEThe bare plywood reverse carries a handwritten pencil inscription. It is faint and largely illegible. I have photographed it in raking light and included those photos so you can judge it for yourself. I have deliberately not published a reading of it: I cannot make it out with confidence, and a guessed artist name is worse than no name at all. Nothing in this listing is offered as an attribution. If you read cursive Spanish you may get further with it than I did.
CONDITIONHonest, unrestored vintage condition, with fiber issues you should look at closely before you buy. Read this section in full.
LOOSE YARN. In several places strands have come up out of the wax bed and are loose rather than lying pressed flat. To be clear about what this is: the yarn is still attached and nothing has fallen off, it simply is not held down any more. I have left it exactly as I found it. I am not going to press it back in, because re-bedding yarn into an aged wax and resin surface is conservator work and a bad attempt is permanent. Those strands are fragile, and I will pack the face so that nothing rests against it.
YARN LOSS. Separately from the loose strands, there is localized loss and fiber disruption in several places: on the legs of the green figure, inside the yellow orange triangle of the roof at lower right, across the cream and purple rectangular motif at upper right, on the tan hook form beside the teal element, and in scattered spots in the brown ground. Those areas show thinned or missing yarn with brown and rust colored spotting around them. On wool, that pattern is consistent with old moth or carpet beetle feeding rather than wear or handling. I am telling you that because it is the most likely explanation, not because the piece has been examined by a conservator. Close up photos of every affected area are included.
PESTS. I see no live insects, larvae, casings or frass on the panel, front or back. It will ship sealed in plastic. If you would like it cold treated for insects before it goes out, message me and I will do that at no charge.
ALSO PRESENT. General surface soiling throughout, most visible on the cream section of the border, and crazing in the wax bed consistent with age. The panel itself is sound and flat.
I have not cleaned it and I would advise against wet cleaning. Moisture or solvent on a beeswax and resin substrate softens the bed and mats the yarn permanently. Sold exactly as found.
MEASUREMENTSApproximately 23 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches. Hanging wire already mounted on the reverse.
A companion panel on a blue ground, which also carries a pencil inscription on its reverse, is listed separately. Glad to combine shipping if you want both.
PACKING AND QUESTIONSPacked flat and braced with corner protection, with the face clear of the packing material so nothing drags on the loose strands. The real risk with a panel like this is flexing that cracks the wax bed, not impact, so it ships rigid rather than loose.
Everything I know about this piece is written above. If something is not covered in the description or shown in the photos, ask me before you buy and I will get you more pictures the same day.
