Sculpture from the Collection of George Terasaki

Sculpture from the Collection of George Terasaki

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 3. HOPI KACHINA FIGURE.

HOPI KACHINA FIGURE

Auction Closed

November 19, 09:20 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 25,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

HOPI KACHINA FIGURE


Depicting Mosairu

Circa 1880

Height: 15 ½ in (39.5 cm)

Cottonwood, pigments

Alan Kessler, Santa Fe

Sotheby’s, New York, December 4, 1997, lot 41, consigned by the above

Donald Ellis, Dundas, acquired at the above auction

George Terasaki, New York, acquired by 2008

Philip Z. Trupp, "Kachinas", Collections, 1998, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 43

Alexandra Pascassio and George Terasaki, Kachina: George Terasaki Collection, Paris, 2008, n.p., cat. no. 3

“Monumental Legacy”, Native American Art, No. 23, October and November 2019, p. 127, fig. 3

Mosairu appears during Angk'wa evening dances as a herder or a guard. He is also referred to as the buffalo kachina. While buffaloes were not native to Hopi lands, they were important among the Eastern pueblos, and as a result, Mosairu kachina was inducted into the pantheon of spirits in order to increase the presence of the animal.