This is a small plate by Joseph Lonewolf. The piece is fully polished on the front and back and fired red.   The plate is from 1979.  Joseph made very few plates over the course of his career, but each is distinctive. This piece has a realistic Junco, which is a type of sparrow snowbird.  The bird is sitting on a branch.  It is surrounded by an etched cloud design.  The back is fully polished red and has a dragonfly, the yearly symbol for 1979.  The plate is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Joseph Lonewolf”.   It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.  

“It gives me a funny feeling when people tell me I’ve done something brand new and different. I’ve just figured out all over again what potters did centuries ago. But it is NOT new as people like to say it is. Such colors were achieved in pre-history times by my ancestors.  I regard the Mimbres as my ancestors. Though I refine their designs, each design must have meaning for me. In my dreams I see how to use the design, how to make the pot happen. Then when I work the clay, everything flows. Some people wonder why I keep changing styles, colors, forms. But I can’t just sit there and make pots. Like any artist I must try different things, different techniques. I must meet the challenge with my hands. The patterns and the methods I see in my mind during my dreams.”
—JOSEPH LONEWOLF, Spoken Through Clay

Deciphered: The Yearly Symbols of Joseph Lonewolf