Mojave Pottery Polychrome Young Male Figurine [SOLD]

Before Santa Fe artist and author Rick Dillingham bequeathed his collection of 214 pottery items by Mojave potters to the School for Advanced Research (SAR). The SAR had only six Mojave objects in its collection.  Dillingham greatly improved SAR’s collection of Mojave pottery which then resulted in an extensive book on the subject.

There are several male figurines in the Dillingham collection that have red stripes on the body as illustrated in this one, but there is no attribution to the maker or to an estimated date that it would have been made.  He wears a cloth breechclout and has a horsehair wig that is secured with a headband. The minimal face paint and body paint, along with the body proportions, would indicated that this is a representation of a young man, perhaps not too long past puberty.

The refined style, condition of the breechclout, and condition of hair are indications that this is one from the 1920s.

Condition: this Mojave Pottery Polychrome Young Male Figurine is in excellent condition with some fading of the breechclout

Provenance: from the estate of Henry Christensen III of New York who had purchased it from Adobe Gallery in 2004.

Reference: Mojave Pottery, Mojave People—The Dillingham Collection of Mojave Ceramics by Jill Leslie Furst