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Actions Displays	Hopi canteen Remove from selection Add to selection Reproduction Download mediaDownload as zip file Object number04487.141 TitleHopi canteen Creator Hopi South-west DescriptionThis earthenware canteen is a wonderful example of Hopi pottery. The Hopi are Native American people who now live on the Mesas of Arizona in the Southwestern United States. They have been making beautiful hand-crafted pieces from clay for centuries. Pottery vessels were an everyday essential, used for cooking and storing food. Small canteens like this one were made to take to the fields to carry drinking water. The handles are designed to hold a rope or sash so that the canteen could be slung on a shoulder or hung from a branch. The Hopi also made pottery for ceremonial uses and for trading. The opening up of the country in the 19th century with the expansion of the railroads and the development of tourism offered them new opportunities and new markets. Natural elements such as the rain, birds, plants and animals or Hopi religious symbols are traditionally used to decorate their work. Look carefully and you can see the face and headdress of a man painted on the canteen. This is a Hopi katsina (kachina), a divine and ancestral spirit being. They visit the villages to help the Hopis with everyday activities during the first half of the year, from planting in spring through to the harvest in July. The Hopi create their pots using traditional methods handed down through the generations. From basic ingredients – local clay, dug from the earth by hand, and water – they produce objects of exceptional beauty. Their methods today are largely unchanged from those used a thousand years ago. Production placeN. America Arizona Object nameCanteen Drinking, Domestic MaterialEarthenware Dimensions body Diameter: 145 mm whole Height: 175 mm

Reproduction

Download mediaDownload as zip file

Object number04487.141

TitleHopi canteen

DescriptionThis earthenware canteen is a wonderful example of Hopi pottery. The Hopi are Native American people who now live on the Mesas of Arizona in the Southwestern United States. They have been making beautiful hand-crafted pieces from clay for centuries. Pottery vessels were an everyday essential, used for cooking and storing food. Small canteens like this one were made to take to the fields to carry drinking water. The handles are designed to hold a rope or sash so that the canteen could be slung on a shoulder or hung from a branch. The Hopi also made pottery for ceremonial uses and for trading. The opening up of the country in the 19th century with the expansion of the railroads and the development of tourism offered them new opportunities and new markets. Natural elements such as the rain, birds, plants and animals or Hopi religious symbols are traditionally used to decorate their work. Look carefully and you can see the face and headdress of a man painted on the canteen. This is a Hopi katsina (kachina), a divine and ancestral spirit being. They visit the villages to help the Hopis with everyday activities during the first half of the year, from planting in spring through to the harvest in July. The Hopi create their pots using traditional methods handed down through the generations. From basic ingredients – local clay, dug from the earth by hand, and water – they produce objects of exceptional beauty. Their methods today are largely unchanged from those used a thousand years ago.

Production placeN. America Arizona

Object nameCanteen

Drinking, Domestic

MaterialEarthenware

Dimensions

body Diameter: 145 mm
whole Height: 175 mm