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A Nampeyo polychrome pictorial jar image 1
A Nampeyo polychrome pictorial jar image 2
Lot 70

A Nampeyo polychrome pictorial jar

9 December 2025, 12:00 PST
Los Angeles

US$2,000 - US$4,000

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Nampeyo (Num-pa-yu),

Hopi-Tewa, (1859-1942), a wide-shouldered polychrome pottery jar painted with alternating abstract feather sprays and birds in flight, restored by Andrew Goldsmidt.
height 5 3/4in, diameter 11 1/4in

Footnotes

Accompanied by typed provenance note on part of an old playing card stating: Bowl bought in 1897 [or possibly 1893] at Mesa by the pottery named Nempeye C.E.M.

Provenance
Collected by Charles Edward Mendenhall (1849-1937), or his son Edward Simpson Mendenhall, and descended in the family
Skinner, Inc., Boston, MA, American Indian & Ethnographic Arts, 29 January, 2005, auction 2265, lot 435
The Collection of Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch, acquired from the above

Charles Edward Mendenhall was born into a Quaker family in Guilford County, North Carolina. His later education in Philadelphia led him to join a group of Mennonite and Quaker social missionaries working at the Indian school at Carlysle, Pennsylvania. In 1878, he left to work as a medical assistant and teacher on reservations in Kansas. His travel and work led him to the territories of Utah, Idaho, California, the Northwest, and the Great Lakes, returning to Philadelphia in 1897. Many objects were sent home to his son Edward, who also collected items at a later date.

Additional information