This little pot exemplifies Fannie’s best painting. Fannie had the longest and most extensive pottery career of any of the Nampeyo daughters. Hundreds—probably thousands—of her pots are in museums and private collections, and many of them are “great” pots. To my eye, none of the designs she used is as elegant, delicate, and pleasing as the design on 2009-14 (and 2008-01).
For another example of a Fannie bat wing jar, see Barsook, 1974:23.
For other pots in the collection with versions of the batwing design, see the Category List
Purchase History: Purchased on 6/21/09 on eBay from Nancy Shank, Las Vegas, NV. She writes that her grandfather, Dr. Earl Shank, “lived and practiced medicine in Los Angeles from 1912-1955. To the best of (my father’s) recollection (his father) brought back this pot in [19]52 from his travels in New Mexico and Arizona…I have spoken with my father (he is 92 but still has a very sharp mind and memory) and he recalls that his father was rotated to three tribes during the [Second World] war. A Navajo reservation in New Mexico, an Apache Reservation in White Mountain and a Hopi reservation in Shiprock, Arizona…. He visited his dad when he was head of the hospital in Shiprock…and his dad had treated Fannie during the war and got to know her. She later gave him this pot as a present when he visited her in 1952.”
(Note: Shiprock, of course, is on the Navajo, not the Hopi, reservation. Dr. Shank may well have served the Shiprock hospital during the War and treated Fannie, and then visited the Hopi reservation in 1952 and received 2009-14 as a gift.)
