Hopi-Tewa Pottery Bowl with Hanging Lug by Nampeyo and Annie [SOLD]

This bowl with a hanging lug, a pictorial bird design, and perforations around the rim has been attributed to Nampeyo of Hano and her daughter, Annie Healing Nampeyo, by former Santa Fe dealer and collector Marti Struever.  

To quote Marti: 

April 11, 1997: The polychrome bowl you own has a Tewa/Hopi origin.  In my opinion it is probably a collaboration effort of the renowned potter Nampeyo and her eldest daughter Annie.  Nampeyo would have molded the vessel, and Annie would have done the painting.

The painted motif and the bowl interior are typical Sikyatki motifs in a composition of a type Nampeyo and her heirs used often.

Mother and daughter worked so long and closely together that it is difficult to precisely distinguish their separate hands. Further complicating this is the tendency of Nampeyo and Annie to display their wares together on a blanket in their yard.  Neither of their pottery was signed so early tourists and museum curators made the assumption that they were buying pottery made by Nampeyo. In reality, some of the displayed ones were probably made by Nampeyo and painted by Annie and others were made solely by Annie.  The majority, of course, were probably made by Nampeyo.

If Marti Struever’s analysis is correct, then we have an explanation for the almost absolute symmetry of the design.  Nampeyo tended to be more abstract in her designs, according to an expert on the work of Nampeyo.

There is a richness to this bowl and it is even more obvious when viewed face-on as provided by the stand.

Condition:  this Hopi-Tewa Pottery Bowl with Hanging Lug by Nampeyo and Annie is in exceptional condition for a vessel of its age

Provenance: from a gentleman from New Mexico

Recommended Reading: Canvas of Clay: Seven Centuries of Hopi Ceramic Art by Wade and Cooke

Relative Links: Pueblo Pottery, Annie Healing, Hopi Pueblo, Rachel, Daisy, Nampeyo of Hano and Annie Healing