Steve's Insider Info
This is where we at Turkey Mountain Traders can take the time to give our clients and friends a glimpse into how we look at the art we sell.
Every month, we'll look at one topic in depth, and readers will learn about what technical aspects are important, how we separate the good from the great, and what makes something important culturally, historically and artistically.
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This month...The Forms and Figures of Zuni Inlay
The lapidary skills of the Zuni have been applied to innumerable items over the years, and there is no limit to the possibilities. However, the actual range of forms has been limited by market forces, and almost all of the inlaid figures on the market fall into one of the following categories, listed from most common to rarest.
The pieces pictured in black and white are out of the C. G. Wallace auction catalog, and those in color are from the TMT inventory. All are among the best of their type.
The Knifewing God is the most common figure found in pre-1970s Zuni inlay work. According to Frank Hamilton Cushing, "This curious god is the hero of hundreds of folklore tales, the tutelary deity of several societies of Zuni. He is represented as possessing a human form, furnished with flint knife-feathered pinions, and tail. His dress consists of the conventional terraced cap (representative of his dwelling place among the clouds)....He was doubtless the original War God of the Zunis." In terms of collectibility, Knifewings of average quality are the equivalent of squirrels--cute and interesting, but pretty easy to find.
As a figure shown on its side with an arched back, the Rainbow Man is clearly modeled after the rainbow. As such, it has an association with rain and water that was very important to farmers such as the Zuni. It does not show up quite as much as the Knifewing, but runs a close second. It is the figure most commonly found on bracelets, probably because its natural curve fits in well with the form of a bracelet.
The butterfly does show up frequently in dance regalia at the Pueblos, so the design was not introduced by Anglos. Still, it was a form that the Zuni artists found appealed greatly to buyers, so it became the most commonly used non-human figure. The wings were an excellent canvas for some of the great inlay artists to show their mastery, while the less talented were content to grind out small butterflies with inlay of medium quality.
The Hopi Bird is a stylized bird with the head turned to the side and wings spread, usually with a single round eye. There has always been artistic interplay between the Hopi and Zuni, especially in terms of pottery designs, and the Hopi Bird is an example of a Hopi pottery symbol that has become part of the Zuni artistic lexicon. Thunderbirds are also birds with their heads shown in profile, but are quite a bit more angular and less graceful. Some Hopi Birds are quite realistic looking, while others have more of an abstract and mystical look. Small ones are common, but larger ones (especially the ones that have inlaid dots) are rare and highly collectible.
There is no more impressive figure in Zuni ceremonialism than the Shalako, who comes over the hill during the Shalako Dance in December. In real life, the figures are eight feet high, and special houses with high ceilings need to be built to house them during the ceremony. Their distinctive green, white and black kilts translate very well into inlay, but only in the hands of a very skilled lapidarist.
Except for Knifewings and Rainbow Men, all human figures are uncommon. Maidens were made in larger numbers than other figures, mostly using channel inlay and shoddy work during the 1960s. Fine mosaic inlay maidens from the Wallace era are rare--to judge quality, look at how well the face has been carved (or, in some cases, just scratched on.)
The Snake Dancer is a Hopi figure rather than a Zuni one, but the combination of the dancer and the writhing snake was such a dramatic image that some of the best Zuni artists made it part of their repertoire. The two best known were Eddie Beyuka and Leo Poblano, and Beyuka's early work is often mistaken for Leo's. Two main differences between them: Leo's snakes are inlaid stone rather than stamped silver, and Beyuka would use channel inlay in the dancer's kilt.
With its black body and wild spray of multicolored dots, the Fire God is one of the most distinctive figures made at Zuni. It is extremely difficult to execute well, so most artists would either do it in a small scale (under 3" high) or do only the head.
Until the 1960s, there were few inlaid animals produced. The most common would probably be the horses, but they are still quite rare.
The Pahlik Mana, or butterfly maiden, is another Hopi figure sometimes used by Zuni artists. It is a dancer rather than a deity, and its elaborate headdress and wonderfully painted mask make it very well-suited to the Zuni art. Since the attention is focused on the face and headdress, they are normally only depicted in silver and stone from the shoulders up. The artist best known for his Pahlik Manas was Walter Nahktewa, and his have a delicacy and quality unmatched by anyone else.
With a single horn sticking off th the side of the mask and a distinctive black and white face and neck ruff, the Saiyatasha, or Longhorn Kachina, is normally shown as a head only. The ruff is especially well-suited for raised channel inlay.
All other figures are found only rarely, and normally done only by the very best inlay artists. Since small figures are rarely done, the skill in making a large dancer or kachina limited the number that could be made. Pieces like these are irreplaceable treasures that rarely come to market.