Hopi Polychrome Jar with Open Feather Design [SOLD]

Those who knew Garnet Pavatea are aware that for most of her career, she fired her pottery in the traditional outdoor manner.  Later, in the last decade of her life, she had both lower legs amputated from the results of diabetes and was then unable to fire outdoors.  She purchased an electric kiln and fired her pots in that manner.  This jar is one of her earlier (circa 1950s) and displays evidence of an outdoor firing.  There is a fire cloud on one side that is faint but discernible.

Garnet had a long and productive career of pottery making, even after her medical problems.  She was a favorite of collectors of Hopi pottery. Her father was a Hopi and her mother a Tewa. She lived at the Tewa Village on First Mesa on the Hopi Reservation. She was an active potter from circa 1940 to circa 1981.

This jar is typical of the high-quality pottery for which she was known.  It has a globular body on which is placed the decoration and a long graceful neck which is devoid of decoration.  The body decoration is very traditional Hopi/Tewa style in that it is simple and elegant. 

Condition: in original condition with minor abrasion on some of the brown paint which is very typical of Hopi pottery.

Provenance:

- ex col John W. Barry

- ex coll Scott and Margaret Kennedy

Recommended Reading:  Contemporary Hopi Pottery by Laura Graves Allen