About Us

Gallery

Business Policies

Contact

Home

Now on to the particulars of this mighty jar itself. First, is the sheer physicality, difficulty and serious mechanical logistics of just the painstaking process of making of it; collecting, carrying and processing this extraordinary amount of fine Antelope Mesa clay, coiling and building the gigantic jar, scraping and meticulously stone polishing it all over, gathering the raw materials for and hand grinding and preparing all the paints and the actual painstaking process of painting the massive jar then building a gigantic firing pit and carrying and placing the jar into it, conducting the treacherous high temperature firing process itself, cooling and then transporting the finished pottery piece almost certainly by buckboard wagon or on mule a considerable distance over very rough or non-existent roads back to the residence or business of its distinguished purchaser, and more on that later. Are you exhaucted yet?

This was clearly a monumental and monumentally difficult undertaking every step all the way around, like literally moving a pottery mountain. And keep in mind that Nampeyo was a tiny woman, she stood only some four feet ten inches tall, 58 or so inches, this 22 1/2" jar is well over one-third of her total height.

The jar’s striking and powerful painted design is well worth discussing in some detail. It is arranged in characteristic Nampeyo fashion in two pairs of symmetrically-matching, 180 degrees horizontally-opposed large vertical panels, each measuring around 18 1/2” in height and 11” or so in width, all topped by a separate horizontally-oriented design panel and all contained within wide horizontal, unbroken framing lines at the jar’s top and bottom. These four main panels consist of two matched symmetrical pairs of designs in a similar arrangement to the ancient Hopi Sikyatki Period (1375-1625 a.d.) design style of using horizontally-opposed paired designs. The incredible beauty and magnificent quality of the ancient pottery of Sikyatki and other nearby Hopi village ruins such as Awatovi and Kawaiika-A greatly inspired succeeding generations of Hopi potters such as Nampeyo, Paqua Naha and others to create a “Sikyatki-Revival” style of Hopi pottery beginning around the last quarter of the 19th Century and continuing forward to this day.

Our Original “Magnificent Eight", now "The Magnificent Nine."

These are the eight largest and finest historic Hopi pottery jars we have ever had over the past 40 years. Seven of the eight pieces shown here were made by Nampeyo. The eighth piece, the very tall cylinder jar seen above at the lower right, was made by Nampeyo’s close friend and colleague, Paqua Naha, the Original Frogwoman.

c

“When I first began to paint, I used to go to the ancient village and pick up

pieces of pottery and copy the designs. That is how I learned to paint. But now,

I just close my eyes and see designs and I paint them.”

-Nampeyo

“The Nampeyo Pottery Tower”

Above is a fictional imaginary photographic presentation that makes the point perfectly about this vessel’s almost unbelievable skyscraper-like size. It is beautiful, whether fictionally or otherwise, to see this kind of Hopi pottery "Skyscraper" towering majestically above the Southwestern landscape, here on the South Rim of The Grand Canyon.

An extraordinarily large and exceptionally beautiful historic Hopi polychrome pottery Cylinder jar by Nampeyo of Hano, c. 1905-1910

ex: Juan Lorenzo (J.L.) Hubbell Collection, Arizona

ex: J.L. Hubbell Family Collection, Arizona

Is this the world’s largest Nampeyo pottery jar? It could very well be, until and unless someone somewhere can

show us a larger one. Clocking in at a completely colossal 22 1/2” in height, this huge Hopi cylinder-style jar is by

a very considerable degree the single largest pottery jar we have ever seen or ever heard of by the world-renowned Hopi pottery Matriarch, Nampeyo of Hano (1859-1942). This is not in any way a tall tale, mind you, but the absolute honest truth. The second largest Nampeyo pottery piece was four inches smaller at 18 1/2” and the third largest was over 6” smaller at 16” and those were both extremely large pieces themselves. Photos of these “Big Girl” runners-up can be seen below in our section on “The Magnificent Eight, now the Magnificent Nine”.

Admittedly, this is a very large statement indeed, but if you have ever seen a larger piece of Nampeyo pottery somewhere we’d sure like to know about it. But while large size in itself is a sizable part of the equation here, it’s also gotta be beautiful and well made too to be considered a complete masterpiece and in this regard, this jar is also among the most beautiful and well made Nampeyo pottery pieces we have ever seen, in our fairly experienced opinions and we have seen and had quite a few. And again, if you’ve seen a more beautiful or better made one somewhere, we’d sure like to know about it. Nampeyo of Hano is universally considered to be one of the most accomplished and creative Pueblo potters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition to creating a formidable body of outstanding work herself, Nampeyo was also the inspiring founder of a distinguished Hopi pottery-making family dynasty which is still going strong today, nearly eighty-five years after her death.

In addition to all this, the provenance of this piece is about as great as it ever gets for such a piece, picture

perfect and deeply historic, it comes by direct descent from the personal collection of Juan Lorenzo (J.L.) Hubbell (1853-1930) of Ganado, Arizona, pictured here below. Hubbell was probably the most famous and well-known Southwestern Indian trader of his or any other time. After Lorenzo Hubbell’s death in 1930, the jar descended by inheritance from him to his succeeding generations of his family. It’s almost certain that Hubbell purchased or commissioned this piece directly from Nampeyo or from one of the local Hopi Indian traders who also regularly purchased and commissioned pieces from Nampeyo such as The Fred Harvey Company or Thomas Varker Keam of

nearby Keams Canyon or Ethnologist and Trader, Alexander Stephen.

There is no way to know this for certain, but this jar was very likely displayed in one of J.L. Hubbell’s eponymous trading posts in Ganado, Winslow or Oraibi, Arizona or in his personal home in Ganado or both. At some point before the various Hubbell Trading posts were sold, Hubbell’s family descendants removed this jar to keep in their private personal collection. Recently some longtime colleagues of ours obtained a number of items from this old J.L. Hubbell family collection from Hubbell’s descendants, including, very happily, this jar.

The matching designs on the first pair of painted panels give the distinct sense of being large stylized Great Horned Owl pictorial figures portrayed in these two panels as can be seen in a comparison with the photo above of an actual  great Horned owl, the general composition of the figure, its eyes, beak, ears, face horns and tail feathers are all remarkably recognizable as being those of an owl. How intentional this was on Nampeyo’s part is impossible to know, but it’s fascinating and mysteriously quite beautiful to behold and contemplate.

The designs on the other pair of panels are two matching stylized Sikyatki-style bird figures arranged in a vertical orientation and interestingly divided by a central interior border of four parallel vertical lines. Above the jar’s top framing line encircling around the entire top of the neck is a design panel some 4" in height which is composed of eight smaller panels of continuous repeating terraced or stepped motifs painted in a reverse or negative fashion emphasizing the negative or unpainted spaces. This is also a distinct and characteristic design indicative of Nampeyo’s hand.

These eight horizontal panels are each divided and accentuated by smaller vertical panels with a vertical row of five stacked and repeating negative etched-in or sgraffito “x” designs. This uppermost design panel is a fascinating and completely complex “topper” so to speak to the jars’s overall rich design, a delectable “Cherry on the Sundae” type feast for the eyes, if you will.  

There has been some various speculative discussion over the years by certain of our colleagues and other academics in the field regarding the possibility that a large Hopi pottery upright “Cylinder” style jar such as this might have been made on special order for use as an umbrella stand in a trading post or hotel. We have seen no evidence of this at all, photographic or by usage wear patterns, on this jar or on the two or three other similar though considerably smaller ones we have seen over the years. Rather, we believe that these various extra-large sized Hopi pottery vessels, upright jars, low-profile “Flat” jars and cylinder jars such as this one were often commissioned and made on special order from Nampeyo, Paqua Naha and other prominent Hopi potters by prominent Indian traders or trading Post owners such as J.L. Hubbell, Thomas Varker Keam or Thomas Polacca either for themselves or on behalf of or for sale to The Fred Harvey Company and others simply for use as artistic “Trophy” type impressive display pieces for their prominent high-end Southwestern Hotels or trading posts.

"Bubo Virginianus", The Great Horned Owl.

Photo source and © The Alaska Raptor Center

Hotels such as The Hotel El Tovar and Bright Angel Lodge at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, The La Posada Hotel in nearby Winslow, Arizona, The Hotel Alvarado in Albuquerque, New Mexico and various prominent high-end Southwestern trading posts such as those of J.L. Hubbell where this particular jar was almost certainly on proud display. One could just as easily imagine seeing this jar prominently displayed on a lobby floor or table or over a fireplace in any of these fine Fred Harvey Hotel establishments as simulated here above in a photo of the Hotel El Tovar's lobby at the Grand Canyon. The remarkably excellent condition of this piece and that of similar other very large Hopi vessels we have seen is a testament to that distinct “Trophy Display” piece possibility in our opinion, the vessel shows no evidence at all of any type of utilitarian use.

To reiterate, we have been buying, selling and collecting fine historic Hopi pottery for over 40 years now and this is the single largest piece of Nampeyo pottery we have ever had or ever seen. It is also along with our “Magnificent Eight” shown below one of the most beautiful and well made historic Hopi pottery pieces we have ever had or ever seen. A distinguished outstanding “Trophy” art piece and a rare prize indeed for its next very fortunate owner.

Price available upon request

SOLD

Note: Due to this jar’s extraordinary size and considerable weight, special shipping/delivery arrangements will have to be made and shipping or delivery to certain destinations might not be possible. Direct personal pickup in Santa Fe by the purchaser or purchaser’s agent is also a possible option by special arrangement.

Above, views of the several surface cracks across the face of the vessel. Below, the various handwritten trader codes, prices and other notations inside the vessel.

The painting overall on this exceptionally large vessel is very beautifully and very powerfully done and the overall effect is a most impressive and extremely dramatic visual extravaganza, to say the least, it’s almost overwhelming.

The cylinder jar measures a stupendous, almost hard to take in or even believe sky-scraping 22 1/2" in height. It is 13" in diameter at its widest point across the top shoulder and 9" in diameter across the base. The jar is in remarkably excellent condition overall. It has several horizontal surface cracks across the face of the vessel which do not go through the vessel walls as shown below and a number of small nicks and scuffs scattered around the jar's surface. There is also as can be seen in the photo below some abrasion to the base of the vessel. There is nothing here that requires professional restoration in our view, and furthermore, there are no serious cracks and no major chips. A thorough examination of the vessel under Ultraviolet light reveals no evidence of any restoration or overpainting.

For a jar of this remarkable size and century and a quarter or so of age and especially considering the extremely primitive conditions under which the jar was originally made and then transported across the extremely rough early 20th Century Southwest, this is an extraordinary outcome to say the least. Most interestingly, there is also an old trader’s code “HERX” written twice in pencil on the inside of the jar along with the inscription “NO.1” and a price of $60.00. This was a very substantial amount of money to spend on a piece of Indian pottery at that time. In 1910, $60.00 would buy 60 to 80 meals for two at a nice restaurant, 400 gallons of milk or pay 3-6 month’s rent of a

nice apartment in many American cities.