It is not often that we come across signed pieces by Annie Nampeyo.  In looking back over 20 years, this is the second signed piece we have had in that time, and the largest!  While Annie worked on pieces with her mother, Nampeyo of Hano, she did not make as much of her own signed work.  Her first noted pieces were around 1919 and by the 1930’s she was unable to continue to make pottery due to arthritis.  This large jar is thin-walled and painted with bee-weed (black) and red clay slips.  The jar has a batwing design on two sides and eagle tail patterns on the other two sides.  Note the precision of the painted lines on the bat wings!  The jar is probably from the late 1920’s, as the red clay areas are more “painterly”.  In the early 1930s Mary Colton at the Museum of Northern Arizona encouraged Hopi potters to begin using a new red clay slip which covered more evenly and it was an immediate success.  This jar was traditionally fired and it is signed on the bottom in bee-weed, “Annie Nampeyo”.   It is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  Annie was a matriarch of a family of potters, including Rachel Nampeyo, Dextra Quotskuyva, Priscilla Nampeyo, Les Namingha, Steve Lucas and many others!  Definitely a unique vessel and a piece of Hopi-Tewa pottery history!