Hopi-Tewa Polacca Polychrome Bowl by Nampeyo [SOLD]

Hopi Indian trader, Thomas V. Keam (1846-1904), was a friend and benefactor to the Hopi.  He received a government Indian Trader license in 1875 and was responsible, with Alexander Stephen, of revising the Sikyatki revival pottery tradition.  Stephens’s contribution was in compiling detailed information on the objects. Keam also put together a very large collection of Hopi material culture, purchasing items from the Hopi on a regular basis.

Frank Hamilton Cushing, an ethnologist at the Smithsonian, had designed some exhibits at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.  A visitor to the exhibit was Victorian Boston wealthy widow Mary Tileston Hemenway who was impressed with the exhibit, and it initiated in her an interest in American Indians. Her husband has just passed away that year and she was perhaps looking for something of interest to do.  She probably met Cushing at the exhibit.

Cushing was invited to be a guest at Mrs. Hemenway’s estate during the summer of 1886.  It was during this visit that Cushing received encouragement and funding from Mrs. Hemenway to establish The Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expeditions, 1886-1894.

The Second Hemenway Expedition, which began in 1890, was focused on Hopi cultural life.  It was during the four years at Hopi that the Hemenway expedition purchased the collection of 4500 ethnographic items from Thomas Keam for the sum of $10,000.  The collection was to be the foundation of a personal museum belonging to Mrs. Hemenway. The exploration continued until 1891 when Mrs. Hemenway passed away at age 74.  The collection was then ordered to be package and sent to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.  Further operations and expenses were curtailed.

The extensive pottery collection of thousands of Hopi ceramics was left boxed for about a hundred years until finally was examined and catalogued and exhibited.  Edwin L. Wade, Ph.D., and Lea S. McChesney, Ph.D., cataloged the collection and published it in Historic Hopi Ceramics, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1981 (see link below).

I mention this reference because we were visited by Lea McChesney last week when she came to see the ongoing Hopi-Tewa pottery exhibit we currently have displayed.  She is now Curator of Ethnology at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Lea discussed this bowl made by Nampeyo.  I have always displayed such bowls with the section that is painted red as the top of the bowl when viewed upright.  She said that the part painted red in this bowl is the earth or underground.  Earlier examples even had tadpoles painted in that part.  The remainder of the bowl is the sky and the hooked element is a bird.  This makes absolute sense, once pointed out.  We are indebted to her for correcting any of our improper displayed on previous bowls.

This bowl is one of Nampeyo’s Polacca-slip creations, a slip that routinely crazes, as seen in this bowl.  These early Polacca-slip bowls by Nampeyo are often simple in design, as is this one.  It is such simplicity that makes it so appealing.  The thick framing line has a ceremonial line break at the bottom.  The bowl would date to 1880-1890.

As Dr. Ed Wade has frequently stated, there were many Hopi-Tewa potters working at the same time as Nampeyo.  Evidence of this is illustrated in this rare photograph of three potters staged by an unknown photographer at an unknown date.  The potters are identified as Potchangwe, Nuva, and Gweka.  We are appreciative to Hopi-Tewa potter, Mark Tahbo, for sharing this photograph with us.  The photograph was recently found in a burned out home at First Mesa.

Condition: the bowl is in very good condition.  There are fire clouds on the underside.

Provenance: from the collection of a gentleman from Texas who has provided us with several Nampeyo pottery vessels over the past year.

Publication: Edwin L. Wade and Lea S. McChesney, Historic Hopi Ceramics. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 1981.  This is a very rare book but does appear on-line occasionally.

Below Image Source:  this potter was staged by an unknown photographer at an unknown date.  The potter is identified as Nampeyo (Nampeyo of Hano).  We are appreciative to Hopi-Tewa potter, Mark Tahbo, for sharing this photograph with us.  The photograph was recently found in a burned out home at First Mesa.