Quetzaltenango wedding style huipil.

This huipil was part of a collection of huipils made for Mary Lou Ridinger before 2000. This example features light gold brocade, some in silk, on a white cotton base. These huipils were foot treadle loomed in three panels joined by hand embroidered decorative seams. These huipils were woven in the Menchu family workshop in Quetzaltenango. This example is in very good condition. W 123 x L 112 (21-58) $ 300 or best offer.

Mary Lou Ridinger is an American archeologist best known for her discovery of the jade quarry sites in Guatemala that had been lost since the Spanish Conquest in the early 16th century. In partnership with her late husband Jay, Mary Lou discovered three distinct sources for jadeite in the valley of the Motagua River in eastern Guatemala, including tools and other indications that pre-Columbian Maya artisans had worked the material at the source site. Subsequently, she and her husband opened Jades S.A. in Antigua, the first post-Conquest jade workshop in the western hemisphere and began training stone carvers to work in jade. She is credited with being the founder of the modern jade business in Guatemala. We are privileged to have been allowed to acquire these items from her textile collection. They are all variations on the Quetzaltenango wedding huipil, some in traditional colors, others not. They are believed to have been woven prior to 2000 by Senoras Josefa, Nelly and Rosa Menchu in their workshop in Quetzaltenango. www.jademaya.com