Polychrome Seed Jar by Nampeyo, circa 1910 [SOLD]

This is an extraordinarily beautiful seed jar by Nampeyo of Hano, Hopi-Tewa, circa 1910. It is in excellent original condition with only the expected amount of wear associated with a vessel of this age. Dr. Edwin L. Wade has authenticated it as the work of Nampeyo. His comments follow:

A Significant and Rare Polychrome Jar by Nampeyo c. 1910

The native arts of 20^th century Southwest America are the intimate product of the synergy between the forces of the Indian art market and Indian artists. Nowhere is this creative union better illustrated than by this beautiful, intricately designed jar made by the famous Hopi potter Nampeyo.

The composition is remarkably sophisticated, built upon a four panel rotational symmetry that infuses the design with a profound kinetic strength. Looking down on the jar, one gets the impression of spinning propellers, first moving clockwise, then reversing counter- clockwise. The composition is actually a brilliant adaptation of the traditional “whirling log” design common to Hopi as well as Apache, Navajo and other Southwestern tribes.

Step-fret pyramids, as in this jar, added to the end of an inverted swastika were a favored motif of both Nampeyo and later her daughter Annie although they tended to be secondary designs within squares and rectangles and not the primary composition. Even for an artist celebrated for her innovative spirit, this jar is unique in its modernism. It possesses a geometric vitality similar to that of early Soviet book design and Art Deco.

Equally impressive is the precise geometry of the painted line work and the negative motifs created by their intersection. This truly is a masterful object, sensually invigorating as much as it is beautiful. Its visual appeal is undeniable.

And perhaps, expectedly, that appeal was early recognized by one of the most astute collectors of both Native American and Santa Fe-Taos colony artists, William Haskell Simpson. When exactly Simpson collected this jar is unknown, but likely it was decades before his death in 1933, and it is testimony to the vessel’s fineness that it was within his possession.

William Haskell Simpson is widely regarded as the “Father of the Santa Fe Style.” His position as the General Advertising Agent for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (1900-1933) afforded him the ability to shape the commercial image of the American Southwest. He astutely recognized the advantage in supplying a burgeoning tourist industry with enticing imagery of this former wilderness. Sublime, virginal landscape, pacified yet exotic aborigines, and Arthurian cowboys formed the seductive ingredients of his mythic West.

He was and remains the single most important patron of the emerging Santa Fe-Taos art colony, purchasing between 1903 to 1907 some 108 paintings for reproduction on calendars, menus, postcards, booklets, and general advertisement. He also employed select Native American imagery, including a modified “whirling log” Indian good luck symbol similar to the decoration on this handsome jar.

Pedigrees may or may not matter to our daily lives. However, within the field of art history they are valued. To know the personal taste of a prime mover in an art movement, as documented by this wonderful jar collected by Mr. Simpson, is rare. It gives us a standard by which to appraise the taste of a period and evaluate the sensitivity shown to its artists.

—Edwin L. Wade.

Provenance: From the estate of Paul Peralta-Ramos, son of Millicent Rogers, founder of The Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM, which he established in 1953 and endowed with numerous items from his personal collection of Native American Arts, particularly pueblo pottery.