Polychrome Small Jar with Sikyatki Designs, Circa 1905 [SOLD]

This visually charming turn-of-the-century Hopi-Tewa jar demonstrates in style and technique all the hallmarks of Nampeyo’s genius. The shape is derived from the bulbous shouldered saucer shaped jars common to the prehistoric Sikyatki pottery tradition of the 15th and 16th centuries. Nampeyo favored, as illustrated in this vessel, a conical up-thrusting neck gracefully projecting from the jar’s body without seam or flexure.

The design composition is perfectly complementary to the sculptural form of the vessel. The heavy unbroken black encircling upper body band separates the neck of the jar from its mid body. A pair of framing lines just below the widest diameter of the jar completes defining the area of design. The combination of a variety of avian designs and geometric elements point to the aesthetic of the designs Annie painted with Nampeyo from 1900 through around 1908.

The jar was fired in a coal-burning atmosphere, contributing the ivory toned color to the jar’s surface and the polished inner lip of the rim. Such jars were featured prominently at the Fred Harvey Hopi House at the Grand Canyon.

Dr. Edwin Wade, the noted authority of the work of Nampeyo, has visually inspected this jar and identified it as the work of Nampeyo and Annie Healing. A letter of attribution by Dr. Wade will be provided the purchaser.