Hopi-Tewa Polychrome Seed Jar with Bird Design [SOLD]

This seed jar was exquisitely painted with a single large and bold interpretation of a Sikyatki bird.  The tail feathers are broad, the body slimming as it progresses around the jar until the end where there is a beautiful curving beak.  A Zuni influence is noted with the heartline arrow leading from the beak into the body.  The painted lines are perfect.  The deep red slip has a hint of mica.

Steve Lucas is recognized as one of the finest of the younger generation Nampeyo family potters.  He is the grandson of Rachel Namingha Nampeyo and the great-grandson of Annie Healing Nampeyo.  His mother was Eleanor Lucas.  We do not have an exact date of birth, but he was probably born around the mid-1960s.  His Hopi name is Koyemsi, the Hopi-Tewa name for the Mudhead Katsina, the clan to which he belongs.

Lucas has been a consistent award-winning artist at Santa Fe Indian Market and Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial among others.  He has produced some of the finest pottery available during the last decade.  His awards include First and Second Places at the 1994 Santa Fe Indian Market; First, Second and Third Places at the 1995 Indian Market; Best of Division at the Heard Museum in 1997; Best of Show in the 1998 Santa Fe Indian Market, and the list goes on.

Condition: excellent condition with a single minor slip crack in the red pigment

Provenance: from the collection of a family from Washington

Recommended Reading:  Hopi-Tewa Pottery: 500 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf

Photo of Steve Lucas courtesy of Gregory Schaaf.