Tohono O’odham Pottery Human Effigy Figurine Bank [SOLD]

Pottery making by the Tohono O'odham women is a part-time effort as there is no significant market for it as there is for New Mexico pueblo pottery.    Part of the reason is that the few potters mostly do not speak English but only speak their native language.  Another reason is that most potters do not seek out buyers but wait for buyers to find them.

Effigy vessels, such as this, particularly ones made with a slot for deposits of coins, were made for sale to non-Indians.  The outlets for such wares are the trading posts close to the reservation and the occasional Indian dealer who visits the reservation.  Black-on-red wares are not evident in traditional pottery of the tribe before the mid-1800s so it is suspected that it was a style developed to sell to tourists and not for use by the natives.

The red color is clay and the black is derived from mesquite.  Temper used has been known to be sand, horse manure, or ground schist.  This vessel appears to be shaped to represent a non-Indian.  It has a baseball hat, large nose and big midsection.  There is a coin slot in the back.  The vessel is not signed with a potter's name but the names Papago Consuelo Julio are written in ink on a paper label with a price of $35.

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from the collection of Katherine H. Rust

Recommended Reading: Papago Indian Pottery by Bernard L. Fontana, et. al. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1962