Vintage Life-Size Navajo Wooden Cradle Board and Doll

1920s or earlier, the doll with hand-drawn features and wearing a silk blouse, the whole swathed in a somewhat coarse cotton fabric.

35 in.

Private North Carolina Collection

From the collection of Mrs. Harriet Nottingham, an Ohio missionary serving the Navajos of Shiprock, New Mexico in the 1920s. Tribal members presented her with the artifacts here as a farewell gesture of thanks and goodwill upon her departure from the reservation.

Some mothing to fabric; tear to left shoulder exposing interior stuffing; overall wear, but with a refreshing antique appearance in a collecting field dominated by modern fantasies.