Grace Medicine Flower remains renown for her innovative and creative pottery.  This is one of her dynamic polychrome pieces.  These were the last phase of her pottery before she retired.  They combined all the different aspects of her pottery into one piece.  It is polished, painted, carved, and etched!  The top is carved with a horse and cloud swirls.  It is then painted with various clay slips to create the coloration.  Note the various levels of carving for the horse (the legs!) and the plants.  The bottom is also carved but fully polished and then designs echted into the clay.  So, why the horse?  Grace said:

“My mom (Agapita) and dad (Camilio) were both potters. Growing up I would just watch them make pottery. My dad was known for his horse figures, and my mom, well, both of them, were known for the deep- carved pottery. They started making that probably in the 1940s. I would watch them, but I never thought of being a potter or anything like that.” Grace Medicine Flower, Spoken Through Clay

The piece is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Grace Medicine Flower”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  Grace made very few pieces with horses during her career, which makes this an exceptional piece both in creativity and historically!