Diné (Navajo) Corrugated Style Jar with Handles [SOLD]

“Kate Davis learned pottery making as a child from Selena Williams, her grandmother.  Kate’s adherence to the time-honored pottery-making techniques and practices of the Navajo makes her one of today’s most traditional potters, and many of her vessels are purchased by Navajos for ceremonial use.  However, she and daughter Mary Lou also are skilled at producing less traditional forms, and Mary Lou’s recent experiments with smudged blackware attest to a willingness to depart from conventions.  Both Kate and her daughter have adapted some old styles of decoration, such as an unobliterated surface treatment produced by corncob scraping and overall thumbnail indentations, to their contemporary forms.” Plateau, 1987

This jar by Kate Davis illustrates well the use of overall thumbnail indentations, although in actuality she may have used a stick or other utensil rather than her thumbnail.

Condition: original condition

Provenance:  from the collection of Chuck and Jan Rosenak, collectors and authors of Navajo folk art

Reference: “Navajo Pottery,” Plateau, Vol. 58, No. 2. Quarterly publication of the Museum of Northern Arizona. May be ordered from the Museum of Northern Arizona Press, Route 4, Box 720, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001.