Pottery: lamp

Pottery: lamp

Cherokee pottery

Handicraft

Pottery

This undated pottery oil lamp was made by Cherokee potter Rebecca “Amanda” Wolf Youngbird, a self-taught potter of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. A shallow stable bowl form was used to burn oil to create light. The handle of this particular oil lamp has been shaped into the form of a squirrel. A pot with a totemic figure, such as this one, is also called an effigy pot. To make this piece, earthenware clay was shaped into a bowl using the coil method; the squirrel handle was modeled. The entire piece was burnished, before before impressing a pattern in they clay. Youngbird was born on the Qualla Boundary in 1890 and was sent away at the age of 13 to attend the Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. When she returned to Cherokee, she became interested in pottery and began making pots circa 1915. She made her pottery using the coil method, moving upward from a clay base. She used a number of special knives to shape and finish her pieces and burnished them with a smooth stone. Youngbird is credited with introducing the wedding vase to Cherokee, having seen pueblo Indian potters making the form at a demonstration in 1930.

Youngbird, Rebecca Amanda Wolf, b. 1890

Artifact Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

unknown

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg

crafts (art genres)

StillImage

16287

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/16287

2009-10-07

All rights reserved. For permissions and use, contact Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc., Cherokee, NC 28719;

Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

4.5" x 5.25" x 3.75"(dimension)

Craft Revival