Zuni, Southwest Native American
1870–1880
Painted pottery
Height 8 1/4 in. (21 cm); Diameter 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Olympia, Washington; reportedly purchased years ago after being brought into a local Seattle antique shop by a family who had inherited it.
Known within the collection as the “Olympia” Zuni Olla, after its Olympia, Washington provenance, this late 19th-century vessel presents a highly resolved example of Zuni pottery from the 1870–1880 period. The brown-painted rim around the opening, the puki impression on the underbody, and the heartline deer imagery are all consistent with Zuni ceramics of this date, while the rounded form gives the painted surface a broad and continuous field. Across the body, the paneled composition combines heartline deer, small red birds with hooked tails, and carefully controlled linear decoration, creating a dense but balanced visual rhythm.
The heartline animal motif, sometimes described in early sources as antelope imagery, belongs to a Zuni visual language in which painted forms carried meaning beyond ornament. John G. Bourke recorded in 1881 that the line running from the animal’s mouth toward its heart was understood as a form of prayer connected to the spirit of the animal, a reading that gives the imagery on this vessel particular historical resonance. A comparable Zuni olla from the George Terasaki collection sold at Sotheby’s New York in November 2019, offering a useful market reference for vessels of this type and period, while this example remains untouched as shown, with old surface, wear, and patina consistent with long preservation in a private collection.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Zuni, Southwest Native American
1870–1880
Painted pottery
Height 8 1/4 in. (21 cm); Diameter 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Olympia, Washington; reportedly purchased years ago after being brought into a local Seattle antique shop by a family who had inherited it.
Known within the collection as the “Olympia” Zuni Olla, after its Olympia, Washington provenance, this late 19th-century vessel presents a highly resolved example of Zuni pottery from the 1870–1880 period. The brown-painted rim around the opening, the puki impression on the underbody, and the heartline deer imagery are all consistent with Zuni ceramics of this date, while the rounded form gives the painted surface a broad and continuous field. Across the body, the paneled composition combines heartline deer, small red birds with hooked tails, and carefully controlled linear decoration, creating a dense but balanced visual rhythm.
The heartline animal motif, sometimes described in early sources as antelope imagery, belongs to a Zuni visual language in which painted forms carried meaning beyond ornament. John G. Bourke recorded in 1881 that the line running from the animal’s mouth toward its heart was understood as a form of prayer connected to the spirit of the animal, a reading that gives the imagery on this vessel particular historical resonance. A comparable Zuni olla from the George Terasaki collection sold at Sotheby’s New York in November 2019, offering a useful market reference for vessels of this type and period, while this example remains untouched as shown, with old surface, wear, and patina consistent with long preservation in a private collection.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
