Hopi Polychrome Canteen with Palhik Mana by Vernida Polacca Nampeyo

This polychrome canteen is the work of Hopi master potter Vernida Polacca Nampeyo (1955- ). Vernida is the great-granddaughter of Nampeyo and the granddaughter of Fannie, Nampeyo's most prolific and skilled potting daughter. Fannie taught Vernida pottery-making. For decades, Vernida made traditional Hopi pottery the way Fannie taught her, and she is well-known for precisely executing family designs. This Palhik Mana or Butterfly Maiden design, inspired by Nampeyo's version of this design, is well within the Nampeyo family canon but somewhat rare for Vernida. Vernida painted a Nampeyo-inspired design around the outside of the canteen as well. The canteen is more a flat, Army-style canteen than the bulbous ethnographic Hopi canteen form. The handles of the canteen were broken but repaired by a professional ceramicist. The canteen measures 3 1/4" height and 8 1/4" diameter, and is in excellent condition with minor repair. This is an excellent example of Vernida's traditional pottery.