Zuni Pueblo Polychrome Pictorial Pottery Serving Bowl by Josephine Nahohai

This bowl is a size frequently used for working bread dough for a small quantity of oven bread, as well as frequently used for serving food to the family.  This bowl, however, does not appear to have been used at the pueblo.  Zuni Pueblo artist Josephine Nahohai made this pottery bowl with a graceful rim that rolls outward.  It’s a style not often made by potters today but was frequently used in earlier days.

The interior design has a heartline deer enclosed in a circle.  A wide band framed with a dark brown line at the rim and the previously mentioned circle features a magnificently bold design, so large it was only repeated once.  Each of these two designs start with an orange diamond outlined in brown pigment.  Designs then originate at the four points of the diamond—a pair of large orange triangles branch out from the side points and cloud elements rest on the top point and support the bottom point.  The ends of the pair of large triangles are capped with wide brown arches with spiral ends. The exterior of the bowl was sectioned in four rectangular bands, each of which features stepped design elements of traditional Zuni style.

The Nahohai family of potters—Josephine, the mother, and Milford and Randy, her sons—were among the finest potters at Zuni in the twentieth century.  Josephine died in 2007, Randy Nahohai died in 2016, and Milford is still actively producing pottery.

Condition: very good condition with minor abrasions to the painted pigment.

Provenance: this Zuni Pueblo Polychrome Pictorial Pottery Serving Bowl by Josephine Nahohai is from the collection of a client from Colorado

Recommended Reading: Southern Pueblo Pottery 2,000 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf