Hopi-Tewa Small Black-on-white Designed Jar [SOLD]

Joy Navasie (1919 - 2012) second Frog Woman - Yellow Flower is the first potter to inherit the Frog Woman name.  Her mother, Paqua Naha, was the first Frog Woman and, when she passed away in 1955, the Frog Woman name passed on to Joy.  Her mother was also her mentor and Joy began making pottery around 1935 and apparently began using a frog hallmark on her pottery around 1939 although it was different from that of her mom’s.  Joy put web feet on her frogs and Paqua used short lines for toes.  Joy said that her mom was the first to produce white pottery at Hopi and had started doing so around 1951 or 1952.  

This small jar was made in the vessel shape of prehistoric pottery with a small base expanding upward and outward to a mid-body maximum diameter at which point the wall slopes inward and upward to the rim.  The design was placed on the upper half of the vessel.  It is my understanding that Joy fired her pottery inside a vessel which is the reason it remained white and did not pick up a yellow blush from direct influence from the flames.

Condition: excellent original condition

Recommended Reading: Hopi-Tewa Pottery 500 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Provenance: from a gentleman from Colorado who purchased it when living in Albuquerque in the 1970s.