Hopi-Tewa Wall Hanging Historic Pottery Vessel [SOLD]

This Hopi-Tewa Wall Hanging Historic Pottery Vessel has the head of a serpent superimposed on the Sikyatki-inspired stylized bird design.  The design was executed in brown pigment. It is quite likely to have been made by a member of the Nampeyo family as the design is of the style often used by that family.  It is not signed with the name of a potter however.

“A study of numerous well-documented Nampeyo works reveals that the golden age of her exquisitely decorated work was between the years of 1895 and 1908.  Her first pieces were white slipped with black or brown painted designs.” Blair and Blair, 1999:90  This wall-hanging vessel has a brown design on the white slip mentioned here.  It also has a section of stippling known to have been used by Nampeyo. Since we have not located a similar vessel in the published records we are not declaring this to have been made by Nampeyo, however, there are similarities to her work.  The snake head is unique and not yet connected to a known potter.

Condition: this Hopi-Tewa Wall Hanging Historic Pottery Vessel is in very good condition

Provenance: from the collection of a family from Colorado

Reference: Blair, Mary Ellen and Lawrence Blair. The Legacy of a Master Potter: Nampeyo and her Descendants, 1999.

Relative Links: Southwest Indian Pottery, Hopi PUeblo, Historic Pottery