I purchased this small jar because I found the design unique and intriguing. It is unsigned and I gave little thought to its maker. Since then I have seen three other pots with this design. One (2017-05) is in this collection; all three are identified as being by Nampeyo. I returned to small pot 2003-01 for a second look.
Form:
Design:
Design Analysis:
Abstract avian form, the curlicue its head?
Round-bottomed (1920s to 1930s?) Hopi seed jar with two upper framing lines and two polychromatic avian decorative elements with spirals and dots. The construction of the two designs has a similar layout, but one is more carefully drawn than the other is. The rest of the pot is undecorated, which highlights the two designs.
The spiral elements are unusual, the decoration seems spontaneous, and though imperfect, these elements combine to give the pot an energy and lightness that makes me smile.
Other examples:
As noted above, I have seen three other pots with the curlique avian design on jar 2003-01 and all are identified as having been made by Nampeyo.
The first is a a 3-lug canteen (2017-05) I purchased fourteen years after I purchased 2003-01. This canteen carries two renditions of the avian design with the same curlicue head that is found on jar 2003-01:
Jar 2017-05
The design on this canteen is somewhat different than the renditions on the other three pots since the curlicue head is attached to a single, quite detailed body. On the three other examples the head is attached to multiple fragments of avian bodies with simpler layouts.
The second example became part of the Milcent Rodgers Museum collection (Taos) in 2013:
Milcent Rodgers Museum jar
Note that the Milcent Rodgers jar displays three linear body segments with split, pointed ends, very much like the red body segment on jar 2003-01.
The third example was for sale in June of 2017 by Mark Sublette of Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson:
Sublette pot
The jar displays black-above-red body segments with pointed split tails, much like the Milcent Rodgers jar, except that this version has one fewer body layers. The curlique on this jar only makes one circuit and is relatively small compared to the 2-segment body. Much like the Milcent Rodgers jar pictured above, the Sublette jar has large black elements that appear twice on the jar between the avian designs but are missing from jar 2003-01 in this collection.
In spite of the small variance between these three jars and pot 2003-01, it is clear that all 4 pots were made by the same hand and the consensus is that Nampeyo was the maker. ——TRUE??? Quality of painting differs??
The design seems unique to her work.
Not the most careful or controled painting.
