Mojave Pottery Seated Female Figurine [SOLD]

Makers of pottery figurines today are known by name—Annie Fields, Elmer Gates, Betty Barrackman, and Amelia Aspa— but none of the nineteenth century potters who made figurines are known by name, primarily because buyers of dolls did not ask or did not record the name when purchasing a doll from a woman.  In some way, this is an asset as each doll is assessed by its features and workmanship rather than by the name of a famous potter.

This seated female figurine has features associated with late nineteenth century Mojave dolls.  Her head is overly large, a feature often emphasized on major body parts. The head is considered very important, as are the eyes, which are usually presented overly large and outlined in black to provide emphasis.  This figure appears to represent a pregnant woman.

The doll’s face is painted in the traditional manner of Mojave women—yellow face paint with red markings and tattoos from the mouth down over the chin.  She has a hole in the top of her head which probably was used to apply horsehair to represent her hair, however, her head is painted black so perhaps no horsehair was intended.

Condition: structurally in very good condition but there is some loss of face and head paint.  This is probably one of the rarer figurines in the collection we have. There does not appear to be a similar one in the Dillingham collection at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, the largest collection of these figurines known to exist.

Provenance: from the estate of Henry Christensen III of New York who had purchased it from Adobe Gallery in 2004.  Adobe Gallery had previously acquired it from the Chuck and Jan Rosenak folk art collection.

Reference: Mojave Pottery, Mojave People—The Dillingham Collection of Mojave Ceramics by Jill Leslie Furst