Seed Jar with Eagle Tail Designs [SOLD]

This seed jar was created by Nampeyo of Hano, the Hopi-Tewa matriarch who is considered by many to be one of the most important Indigenous artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This wonderful jar could serve as a strong argument in favor of that title. While many potters of the era created works using variations of this form and these designs, very few made pieces that equal this one in terms of strength and elegance.

A powerful visual impact emerges from this modestly sized vessel. The seed jar shape is a favorite among Hopi-Tewa artists, but the viewer who has seen many will likely notice the beauty of this particular example. It was likely made around 1905, when Nampeyo was living at the Hopi House, near the Grand Canyon. During this period, she made a wide variety of inventive pottery forms for sale to tourists. As is typical of works from this period, a label reading "From the Hopi Villages" appears on the base of the vessel.

Nampeyo added painted designs using only black pigment. It's a bolder and stronger black than that which appears on most of her works, which might explain why she did not augment it with red. The designs here—a pair of eagle tails, a pair of square elements with lines emerging from the sides, and a band circling the neck—will be familiar to those who know Hopi pottery, but as with the vessel shape, the quality of work is instantly recognizable.

Nampeyo of Hano (1857-1942) was a widely influential potter who lived and worked on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. Nampeyo is regarded today as one of the finest Hopi potters and one of the most important figures in Native American pottery. Her work is displayed in museums and collections around the world. Little, if any, of her pottery is signed, but her work has been published and documented in detail and is easily identifiable to collectors. Nampeyo was taught how to make pottery by her grandmother and began earning an income as a potter while she was still just a teenager. Less interested in innovation than perfection, Nampeyo took an early interest in the design and form of ancient Hopi pottery, which she believed to be superior to the pottery being created by her contemporaries. She visited the ruins of ancient villages and copied designs from pieces of prehistoric and protohistoric pottery onto paper, then reproduced the designs on her own vessels.

Condition: Excellent condition with one small area of discoloration at the rim in the interior. Blacklight examination does not suggest that this discolored area is the result of professional restoration.

Provenance: this Seed Jar with Eagle Tail Designs is from a private collection

Recommended Reading: THE CALL OF BEAUTY Masterworks by Nampeyo of Hopi by Edwin L. Wade and Allan R. Cooke

TAGS: Hopi Pueblo, Fannie Polacca Nampeyo, Nellie Nampeyo Douma, Annie Healing Nampeyo, Nampeyo of Hano