191008-01 Hopi Canteen; Nampeyo;Bird in Flight c. 1900
6 1/2" deep x 8 1/2" tall x 8" wide The handles of the canteen have medial grooves, as are characteristic of Nampeyo canteens; the front “belly” of the pot is particularly bulbous, typical of
A wonderful and quite sculptural form with confident painting. In original, non-restored condition.
Nampeyo (1859 –1942) was a Hopi-Tewa potter who lived on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. Her Tewa name was also spelled Num-pa-yu, meaning "snake that does not bite".
She used ancient techniques for making and firing pottery and used designs from "Old Hopi" pottery and sherds found at 15th-century Sikyátki ruins on First Mesa. Her artwork is in collections in the United States and Europe, including many museums like the National Museum of American Art, Museum of Northern Arizona, Spurlock Museum, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.
A world record for Southwest American Indian pottery was declared at Bonhams Auction House in San Francisco on December 6, 2010, when one of Nampeyo's art works, a decorated ceramic pot, sold for $350,000