Lot 340
Native American, Southwest United States, Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi), ca. 900 to 1200 CE. An Anasazi pottery dipper or ladle boldly painted with interlocking zigzag and step-fret designs, a vessel where geometry becomes both structure and symbol, moving with deliberate force across a pale ground. The form is classic and purposeful, composed of a rounded bowl and an elongated handle that rises cleanly from the rim. The surface is coated in a light slip, providing contrast for the dense black painted decoration. Inside the bowl, the design resolves into a tightly organized field of rectilinear motifs, including stepped frets, nested squares, and angular zigzags arranged in balanced symmetry. The composition is precise and confident, filling the interior without visual clutter. Size: 9.5" L x 5.7" W x 3.7" H (24.1 cm x 14.5 cm x 9.4 cm)
The handle is similarly decorated, wrapped in continuous geometric patterning that echoes the bowl while asserting its own rhythm. The repetition of step-fret forms, often associated with water, movement, and directional flow in Ancestral Puebloan iconography, suggests symbolic meaning beyond ornament. These motifs may reference rain, migration, or the ordered structure of the cosmos, themes central to Puebloan worldview and ceremonial life.
Pottery dippers and ladles were used in both domestic and ritual contexts, serving for the transfer of liquids, food, or ceremonial substances. Their careful decoration indicates that many were made for more than simple utility. In Puebloan culture, even functional objects were treated as carriers of meaning, their surfaces acting as fields for encoded knowledge and tradition. Visually commanding and culturally resonant, this dipper exemplifies the clarity, discipline, and intellectual depth of Anasazi ceramic design. It is an object that rewards close looking, where every line is intentional and every angle speaks to a highly developed visual language shaped by place, belief, and time.
Provenance: private Denver, Colorado, USA collection, acquired prior to 2002
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#201033
- Condition: Partial professional to handle, some chipping to rim, as well as nicks and stable hairline pressure fissures to body as shown. Otherwise, excellent presentation with good remaining decoration. Old collection label on underside of base.
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