Hopi Polychrome Jar with Zuni and Hopi Designs [SOLD]

There was a period in the late 1700s and early 1800s when many Hopi left the mesas and migrated to their nearest pueblo neighbor—Zuni Pueblo.  This migration was the result of drought, disease, crop failure and other disasters. Many of them stayed at Zuni for 20 or more years and it was during that time that the women were exposed to designs on Zuni pottery.  When they returned to their home land, they brought with them the memories of those pottery designs. 

The Hopi potters were very creative and talented artists so it was not in their interest to copy Zuni pottery designs but to use those designs they saw and experiment with expanding them to enhance their pottery.  In the period 1820 to 1860, we see many Hopi pottery vessels with Zuni-inspired designs. 

This jar, fashioned from Hopi clay, was decorated with Hopi- and Zuni-inspired designs.  The capped spirals on the body are Zuni influenced but what looks like a soaring bird’s wings is directly from Hopi Sikyatki pottery—a classic example of a potter selecting designs she felt worked together and fit the shape of the jar she had made.  This jar probably dates to the period when the Hopi returned to the mesas in the early- to mid-1800. 

Condition:  a rim crack was repaired in the native fashion by drilling a hole on each side of the crack and wrapping wire through the holes. Long ends of the wire were left for reasons unknown to us.  Some of the red slip on the underside has worn away from constant abrasion from use.  The jar is in amazing condition for its age.

Recommended Reading:  Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 by Jesse Walter Fewkes.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Provenance: from the collection of a gentleman from Colorado