Adobe Gallery Blog
Polacca Polychrome Inspiration for a Contemporary Jar by Mark Tahbo - 25911
Mark Tahbo often uses historic and prehistoric examples of Hopi pottery as his inspiration when creating designs on new vessels. He, by doing this, keeps the continuity of Hopi ceramics alive and brings the older designs back to the attention of today's collectors.
This medium-size jar was inspired by a Hopi Polacca Polychrome jar (Sikyatki Revival), dating from 1890-1900, that was in the Thomas Keam collection and now resides at the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. At the time that Alexander M. Stephen cataloged the Keam collection, he categorized Polacca Polychrome as "modern" pottery because it was being made at the time he was working with Keam on documenting his collection. Modern pottery of that time (1890-1900) is now considered historic pottery.