Zuni Pueblo Historic Pottery Dough Bowl from the Fred Harvey Company [SOLD]

This magnificent historic pottery dough bowl from Zuni Pueblo comes with a letter of authenticity from the Fred Harvey Company certifying it is a circa 1930s vessel and was purchased by the company from Mr. Robert Wallace of Zuni, New Mexico in 1989.  Robert Wallace may have been a relative of long-time Zuni trader C. G. Wallace.

The bowl is larger and deeper than most Zuni dough bowls.  It is a hemisphere shape with a rolled-out rim in traditional fashion.  The rim of the bowl is slightly indented from the exterior and has a distinctive inward curve on the interior, imparting a graceful shape to the bowl. The flexure of the interior of the rim is a feature that seems to be standard on Zuni bowls.

The bowl was slipped in traditional fashion with cream-colored clay, over which was painted the design in mineral and vegetal paints. The underbody was covered in a black slip, a tradition starting in the mid-1860s and continuing to today. The exterior was decorated with traditional Zuni bowl designs.  Around the rim is a continuous red undulating design outlined in black.  Below that, separating the rim design from the bowl design, are two black framing lines.  

The design on the interior starts with a black square at the bottom center from which evolve four designs that fill the interior wall.  Two opposing designs are a volute element and the other two opposing ones have a checkerboard triangle enclosed in a traditional deer house.

Condition: a minor crack has been professionally repaired

Provenance: this Zuni Pueblo Historic Pottery Dough Bowl from the Fred Harvey Company is from the collection of a client from Georgia

Recommended Reading: The Pottery of Zuni Pueblo by Lanmon and Harlow

Relative Links: Zuni Pueblo, Pueblo Pottery