Zuni Polychrome Dough Bowl [SOLD]

This is an exceptional nineteenth century Zuni dough bowl that has seen decades of use at the pueblo before finding itself on the commercial market.

It is a venerable, aged bowl from the decade following 1880. This excellent piece is superb in form, execution of design, and fantastic visual history and patina. Displaying the wear of decades of use—some rim wear and interior wear from incessant kneading of bread dough in the vessel's interior, semi-gloss patina from countless daily contact with the human hand, the nicks, blemishes, pits, scratches, and stains of everyday wear.

One may indeed choose to live with, or at least pursue the perfect piece; that type specimen with no evidence of human hand, but why? The visual history of these objects tells much more, of a time, place, a people and culture, and by our response, perhaps something of us. This vessel is Zuni in all respects, from the paste material, construction, and design elements.

We often hear collectors refer to their collection of “museum quality” pieces, meaning, of course, flawless, but if one were to really look at museum collections, the opposite would be discovered, that is, pieces with actual ethnographic wear, far exceed in number, pieces of flawless character.

This is a wonderfully large, excessively deep, and extraordinarily patinated piece of history available for one to actually touch and cherish.

Provenance: Cody, Wyoming Collection.