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With them being highly popular today, there are plenty to choose from, no matter what your budget. Enjoy these unique and highly-prized rugs just as others have over the course of their 500-year existence. If there is a bundle of warps at the edge of each side, then it is unlikely that the rug is genuine. Very few Navajo rugs will have such bundles and even then there would be only two or three warp threads that would make up that bundle and there would be only a single warp thread next to that bundle. Most Navajo rugs have side cords as I described and virtually no Navajo rugs have warp thread fringe at both ends.
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Many people who would never visit the Reservation appreciated the exotic designs and laborious handcraftsmanship of Navajo weaving. Proponents of the Arts & Crafts design movement found that the bold, geometric designs harmonized beautifully with their simple furniture and handmade accessories. By 1896, C.N. Cotton, a trader in Gallup, New Mexico had issued a catalogue in an effort to expand his market to eastern retailers. Other traders, most notably Lorenzo Hubble at Ganado, Arizona and J.B. Moore at Crystal, New Mexico, followed up with their own catalogues in the early years of the new century, focusing specifically on rugs. Navajo weaving had quickly gained a national audience.
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First, authentic Navajo rugs use a vertical loom with a continuous warp. This means that the base wool yarn is not cut at the ends. Instead, the warp thread runs from the bottom to the top of the loom, loops down to it, and loops back to the top. The Navajo rug's foundation is made by the warp yarn, while the design pattern is created by the weft yarn. Mexican looms are horizontally-oriented and have multiple warp threads. They are also fringed at the ends. You are most likely looking at a Mexican-made rug that has fringed ends. This is not a Navajo rug that uses one continuous warp. This rule is not always true. Some weavings in the Navajo "Germantown style" may have had fringe.

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Weavings that incorporate images of objects and people in their designs have slowly gained in popularity since the early days of rug-making. Such Pictorial Rugs may include small representational images within a larger geometric design, or may consist primarily-even solely-of a picture. Small pictorial motifs such as feathers, arrows, animals and other common objects may have held some personal significance for the individual weaver. As the modern trappings of Anglo culture filtered onto the Reservation, strange new objects such as cattle, trains, American flags, and letters of the alphabet caught the fancy of some weavers.
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It should be noted, however, that many rugs produced throughout the century did not conform to a particular regional style and are now difficult to assign to a specific trading post. In recent years as weavers have become more mobile and independent of local trading posts, they often choose to weave patterns originated outside of their area. Many also combine motifs and characteristics from several different regions. As a result, the regional style names are now mostly used to identify common pattern types without necessarily referring to the exact place of origin of a specific weaving. Juan Lorenzo Hubbell was, by most accounts, the leading trader of the early period in rug-making, and owned several trading posts around the Reservation.


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The Spanish introduced the longer than wide serape form that was easier to make on European-style looms. Mantas and serapes were generally used in the same way: wrapped around the shoulders with one long edge turned over as a “collar.” However, mantas also were used by women as wrap-around dresses. Serapes only rarely had a slit in the middle for the head which made them ponchos. Navajo weavers made both the manta and serape styles during the eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries along with shirts, dresses, breechcloths, and sashes.
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The Mexican imitation Navajo rugs’ end borders are typically wider than those on a real Navajo rug. Side borders can be even wider. If the rug's fringe at one end is not a Navajo rug, it could be a fake. Wool (the standard material for making Navajo rugs) is the preferred choice. There are a few authentic Navajo rugs manufactured using synthetic materials such like acrylic. If you find one, you could consider it a Navajo woman weaving a knockoff. It doesn't seem to matter if this is real. Some imitations use wool while others use polyester. Some imitations of Pakistani or Indian wool use a blend from acrylic and polyester. Contrary to what another author claims, smelling the rug to determine whether it is made of wool is ineffective. Most modern Navajo rugs' wool contains very little lanolin.
