Featured Weird Hopi jar?

Can anyone make a guess as to what this is?

It looks like older Hopi ware to me, but I can't find anything exactly like its shape in my books.

Thank you in advance (and then again later).

 

Something like a grain scoop? Interesting piece.

 

Yeah-- that's a good idea. It certainly looks utilitarian.

 

This leans slightly differently and this one is in a group of miniatures (though no size given.) And it's old but I believe they call it a sipper.

From Southwestern Pottery Anasazi to Zuni by Hayes and Blom

 

Yeah-- there's a similarity of shape there. It could be based on a pitcher shape, as the 'mouth' is sorta horizontal, though the body is too.

Thank you.

 

Sipper or dipper? Edit: Ah, I see the text, but still wonder if it's not a typo.

 

I'll take a stab at tagging @Taupou.

 

I'm finding some Pre-Columbian pieces called "duck effigy" forms, so maybe that's the inspiration.

 

no matter how I look at it it still comes out looking like a urine pot ....

 

That too would qualify as utilitarian...

 

I agree with say_it_slowly, that the form is based on one frequently found in early southwest prehistoric pottery, in the range of 900-1200 AD.

I've seen them in museum collections, identified as "bird forms," "sippers," and even "infant feeders," although what they were actually used for is probably just speculation. Maybe it was a fairly common form at the time simply because there were a variety of uses (including all those mentioned!)

In the late 1890s/early 1900s traders were encouraging Hopi potters to make reproductions of prehistoric forms, and it was a time when they were switching to the black-decorated reddish clay, so this could date to that time period, but I would suspect it was made primarily for the early tourist trade.

 

Wow. That's great to know. I appreciate your input!

 

I can't find any similar.....& this is hardly close.
https://www.adobegallery.com/art/prehistoric-style-duck-effigy-pitcher

 

Anasazi......?

 

similar noted as duck pitcher

Rare Ancestral Puebloan Mesa Black on White Duck Pitcher, Ca. 900-1000 (culturalpatina.com)

 

Wow! I searched for a while and gave up. The closest I found was a Greek vessel.

 

Thank you for trying! I appreciate it.

It may well be that as Taupou noted, this piece was 'inspired by' those older (much older!) forms.

 

yer slipping ....