Hopi Table Lamp with Shade [SOLD]

Notwithstanding the beautiful pottery being produced by Nampeyo in the late 1800s and early 1900s, most Hopi potters were producing poorly made tourist wares. It was so well recognized that this was the case that the Government set up the Indian Arts and Crafts Board under the Department of the Interior in 1935 for the purpose of remedying this bad situation.

Mary Russell-Ferrell Colton, wife of the Director of the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, preempted the Government by setting up an exhibition, starting in 1930, at the Museum to encourage craftsmen, including potters, to send their best pieces to compete for prizes and to be put up for sale.

These two efforts certainly had an influence on the increased quality and quantity of Hopi pottery production. Fast forward now to the 1960s and to the early 1970s and we see blossom a national interest in Indian arts and crafts. A combination of high quality as well as the potters producing items of interest to tourists and collectors resulted in even more interest in Native items.

Items such as candlesticks, vases, pitchers, salt and pepper containers, table lamps and other items useful to non-Native households satisfied this national interest. Table lamps were particularly popular during this time. Some collectors took ready made jars, had them drilled for electric cords, and converted them into lamps. Some potters, such as Sadie Adams, actually made bases for lamps that did not require modification, but only required conversion.

Sadie Adams made this pottery base for the purpose of its use as a lamp base. She signed it on the inside with her flower logo. The shade is of cowhide made by the Taos Drum Company.

She signed this piece using one of of her flower hallmarks: