Rare Vintage Polychrome Pottery Hopi-Tewa Bowl by Laura Chapella Tomosie for Sale

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Rare Vintage Polychrome Pottery Hopi-Tewa Bowl by Laura Chapella Tomosie For Sale

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Rare Vintage Polychrome Pottery Hopi-Tewa Bowl by Laura Chapella Tomosie:
$295.00

Vintage Authentic Laura Tomosie

Hopi-Tewa Black & Red Pottery Bowl Signed by the Artist, Laura Chapella Tomosie (1907-1977)

DETAILS:

* Artist: Laura Chapella Tomosie

* Time Period: 1960’s

* Type: Pueblo Pottery Bowl

* Culture: Hopi-Tewa

* Style: Polychrome Hand Painted

* Colors: Black and Red on Yellow

* Authenticity: Signed by Artist

* Provenance: Purchased in 1976 while

on vacation in New Mexico.

DESCRIPTION:

Part of the larger group known as Pueblo Pottery, this traditional Hopi-Tewa handmade bowl has been painted in the typically Hopi style using a polychrome palette - that is, a number of natural colors on one vessel. Here Tomosie has hand painted the piece with Black & Red motifs on Yellow. It is a beautiful example of Pueblo Pottery from the mid 20th century.

MEASUREMENTS:

6" diameter by 4" tall with a 4" opening.

CONDITION:

This bowl is in very good, preowned condition. There are no major cracks or chips. As shown in the photos, there is a round, faded section on bottom right outside of the bowl and an amorphous grey stain on the inside. Neither can be seen when the bowl is sitting on a shelf.

*Please look at all pics and use zoom in feature. Photos serve as part of the description of this item.

HISTORY & TECHNIQUE:

Pueblo pottery is made using a coiled technique that came into northern Arizona and New Mexico from the south some 1500 years ago. In the four-corners region of the US, nineteen pueblos and villages have historically produced pottery. Each of these pueblos use similar traditional methods of coiling, shaping, finishing and firing the pottery.

Various clays are gathered from each pueblo’s local sources to produce pottery colors that range from buff to earthy yellows, oranges, reds, and even black. Fired pots are sometimes left plain and are at other times decorated.

While most kinds of Pueblo pottery share an ancient iconography based on abstract representations of the natural world (such as clouds, rain, feathers, birds, plants and animals to name a few),

the pottery from each tribe is distinctive and painted designs vary from pueblo to pueblo.

LAURA CHAPELLA TOMOSIE:

Tomosie was a Hopi-Tewa, Bear Clan, Tewa Village. She was a prolific potter active from about 1930 to 1968. Her work is part of the collection at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ and she has been published in various books, including Hopi Tewa Pottery: 500 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf and Contemporary Hopi Pottery by Laura Graves Allen. She is also listed in the Hopi Tewa Potters, Native American Resource Collection, Museum of Indian Arts and Cultures in Santa Fe, NM.

Laura Tomosie was born in 1907 in Tewa Village, Iwinge (also known as Hano) located on the eastern edge atop First Mesa on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. She was the daughter of Poui and Toby White, Sister of Mihpi Toby, Grace Chapella, Dallee and Bert Youvella, and eventually Wife of Timothy Tomosie. As a small child, Tomosie learned to make pottery from her mother and her sister, Grace (who would become a renowned and prolific potter herself.) She did not speak English and when collectors bought pottery from her, they communicated by raising a number of fingers to determine the price.