Kewa Pueblo Large Dough Bowl with Native Repairs [SOLD]

Native repairs on a pottery vessel is an indication of its importance to the owner as an item with which she would have need for household use.  Minor cracks can be stabilized on a dough bowl such as this one by wrapping a wire or rawhide around the rim as a cinch.  Additionally, the crack or cracks can be covered in piñon pitch as a sealant to prevent eventual chipping and worsening of the crack.  This historic pottery bowl has both remedies.  There is wire wrapped around the bowl just under the rolled-out rim and it has an elaborate hooking tie.  There are remnants of piñon pitch over three vertical rim cracks.  Most of the piñon has fallen off but enough remains to identify it.

The dough bowl is typical of Kewa bowls with cream slip as a base for the design, black triangles interconnected as a design, and a wide red wiped-on band below the design.  The interior is highly-polished red slip that shows very little wear patterns.

Condition: very stable with native repairs

Provenance:  this Kewa Pueblo Large Dough Bowl with Native Repairs is from a private collection

Recommended Reading: A River Apart: The Pottery of Cochiti & Santo Domingo Pueblos by Valerie Verzuh, et al.