Bonhams 1793 : An exceptional Hopi polychrome jar

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6 Dec 2010 12:00 PST San Francisco
Pottery
Back to auction 18407

An exceptional Hopi polychrome jar

Attributed to Nampeyo, displaying four kachina portraits, similar images found on opposing sides, Polik Mana one of these, shown with ornate tableta, ceremonial dress and holding feathers aloft, the other a male kachina wearing tripartite tableta, a bow, arrow and rattle in his hands, the four images within a double-banded frame outline, stylized feather arrangements on the neck band.
height 12in, diameter 13 1/2in

Sold for US$ 350,000 inc. premium

Footnotes

Provenance:
Carter H. Harrison Jr., former mayor of Chicago; Cliff Dwellers club, Chicago

According to the Cliff Dwellers website (http://cliff-chicago.org/): "In 1907, Chicago author Hamlin Garland and friends founded the Attic Club, which two years later was re-named The Cliff Dwellers. Now, as then, it is a private club and functions as a non-profit organization for men and women either professionally engaged in, or who support, the fine arts and the performing arts." Mayor Harrison was himself a member of the Cliff Dwellers and, like the other members, was an active participant in the public art scene. He was a fan of the Taos school-style Southwest painting of that time and was instrumental in inspiring at least one of that group's most famous members, Walter Ufer, by sending him to Taos on commission.

Harrison's interests took him out West as early as 1914 and yet there is no written record as to when or where he obtained this jar and the others in the collection. Research suggests he donated the group for decorating the club's headquarters around 1934 or before.