Four Spout Polychrome Ceremonial Bowl with Handle [SOLD]

Bowls of this style are typically used at the pueblos in a ceremonial manner: in the kiva, in parades, and at home as repositories for blessed cornmeal. A sprinkle of cornmeal is tossed to the four directions at sunrise every morning as an offering.

The exterior is slipped in cream colored clay over which is applied decorations of rain clouds and the Sun. The interior is slipped in red clay and shows evidence of use. This bowl is in excellent condition.

Item Provenance: A tape applied to the underside identifies this as having belonged to noted anthropologist Bertha Dutton. Ms Dutton served for twenty-five years (1936-61) as curator of ethnology at the University of New Mexico, and for ten years as Director of the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art (now the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian).

Recently from a private collector in Boca Raton, Florida.