Hopi Early 20th Century Hemis Katsina Doll [SOLD]

The Hemis Katsina is probably the most beautiful and best known of all Hopi Katsinas. His elaborate headdress, called a tableta, is partly responsible for his beauty. His body is painted with black corn smut with light colored half-moons on the chest and back. He wears a kilt, and around his waist is a Hopi embroidered rain sash.   A fox skin hangs down his back side and is secured by his waist belt.  The tableta is painted with phallic and cloud symbols and capped with feathers.  A reinforcing stick is attached to the mask and tip of the tableta on the rear—something seen in real katsina impersonation but often omitted on dolls.

The remnants of an evergreen ruff appear around the neck but it has turned brown over the years and the needles are mostly gone.  Contemporary carvings usually use a green yarn ruff but older dolls such as this one actually used real evergreens.  The sun shade hanging over the eyes of the mask is of the old type where sticks are imbedded into the mask and the shade then attached to the protruding sticks. The arm bands were painted turquoise but most of that natural pigment is missing.

This katsina appears in the Home Dance or Niman Ceremony. No other katsinas, neither clowns nor side dancers appear with the line of Hemis except the Hemis Manas.  It is interesting to note that at Hopi, they refer to the Hemis Katsina as having come from the Rio Grande Jemez Pueblo of New Mexico. At Jemez Pueblo, they refer to a similar dance as a Hopi dance.

The paint appears to be a mixture of vegetal and mineral, which leads to the determination that the age of the carving is no later than the 1920s.

Condition:  The toes of both feet have been repaired but there is no evidence of any other repairs.  The items in both hands are missing.  This is a superb example of a Hemis Katsina.