Hopi Pottery Horno or Bread Baking Oven [SOLD]

Many visitors to the gallery mistakenly assume that the hornos they have seen at local pueblo villages are used for firing pottery.  They are somewhat surprised when we explain that they are used for baking loaf bread. We then have to explain how in the world can one bake bread in an outdoor structure such as that.

They develop a true appreciation for the efforts of the women who bake bread in such an unconventional manner after we explain that the horno is heated by building a fire inside and then scraping the ashes out, placing the unbaked bread inside, and placing a cover over the door.  As if by magic, the bread bakes.

Pottery replicas of hornos have been a favored souvenir of tourists to the southwest.  Some have evidence of having been used as incense burners and others with no evidence of use.  This one shows no evidence of having been used. It is not signed with the name of the potter.

Condition: this Hopi Pottery Horno or Bread Baking Oven is in excellent condition

Provenance: from the extensive collection of a Colorado family

Recommended Reading: Collections of Southwestern Pottery: Candlesticks to Canteens, Frogs to Figurines by Hayes and Blom