Hopi Patung (Squash) Katsina Doll [SOLD]

Patung, or squash, is a favorite katsina for many collectors.  He appears primarily on First Mesa as a runner and may have been derived from Zuni.  He, of course, looks like squash and represents such.  He carries squash blossoms in each hand and has a squash-like mask with a squash blossom on the rear.

The artist is from the Hopi village of Hotevilla on Third Mesa. I have not located any published biographical information on Ovah and do not know his age or if he is still carving katsina dolls.  He obviously is or was a well-trained carver as illustrated by this doll.

NOTE:  a friend of Ovah's notified us that he lived on First Mesa and Polacca, not on Third Mesa as we stated above.  She also stated that he had been dead for several years now.  He started the Hopi Harvest Festival, over 20 years ago, which draws thoursands of people to First Mesa.  His family still lives at Polacca.

Condition: appears to be in fine condition

Provenance: from the estate of Tom Mittler, a former resident of Michigan and Santa Fe who purchased it from Carson Shop in Taos, NM in 1986.

Recommended Reading: Kachinas: a Hopi Artist’s Documentary by Barton Wright