Lorenzo Spencer, the Navajo potter who made this jar, lives and works in Cow Springs, located on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The jar has the characteristic brown-red color and is decorated with a smooth brown stepped design set against a textured band. These are the results of techniques used by Spencer, who lightly carved his designs and filled them with slip. The dark marks on one side are from the warm piñon pitch applied to the pot after it is fired and before it cools.
The Navajos have been making fine pottery for centuries but their pottery output declined in the 19th century when the tourists who began to arrive preferred the more complexly decorated Pueblo pottery. In the 1950s there was a Navajo pottery revival led by Alice Williams. Spencer's wife Susie is Alice's daughter and the person who taught him to make pottery, although she does not use decorations on her pots.
This jar is about 4 1/2 inches wide across the equator and 3 inches tall. Although round in shape, it has a square mouth. Its interior is burnished and shows evidence of the hand coiling. It weighs less than 10 ounces and is in excellent condition with no cracks, chips or other damage. Scratched into the clay on the bottom is "NAVAJO 95 Lorenzo Spencer".
Navajo pottery is now regarded as fine art and there is a pot by Lorenzo Spencer in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This jar is a beautiful example of his art.
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