Hopi Pueblo All Wood Hon Katsina Doll, Bear Katsina Doll by Ronald Honyouti [SOLD]

This is the most authentic representation of a bear that I have seen in a katsina doll.  Ronald Honyouti put a very realistic bear face on the katsina doll and bear paws as hand coverings.  The face has been scored with lines to represent hair and the teeth are unrealistically like teeth.  The body is like that of a young man with muscular arms and legs.  The embroidered kilt flows as if the young man is moving.  A carved turquoise necklace with a pair of jaclas hangs around his neck and a pair of bandolier straps crisscross his chest.

The doll was painted with oil-based stains in a matte finish.  The pedestal is decorated with a medicine bear, a stepped design, a circle divided into four sections, another stepped element filled with swimming tadpoles, and a pair of bear paws.  It is signed on the underneath.  The moccasins are extremely detailed with fringe and each leg is tied with yarn straps.  The carving is an all-wood one and appears to be from a single piece of cottonwood root.

Condition: original condition

Provenance: this Hopi Pueblo All Wood Hon Katsina Doll, Bear Katsina Doll by Ronald Honyouti is from the collection of a resident of Washington.

Recommended Reading: This is a Hopi Kachina by Barton Wright

Relative Links:  Hopi Pueblo, katsina dolls, Brian Honyouti, Lauren Honyouti, Ronald Honyouti, Hopi Pueblo Carver