Rare Native American Sioux Pine Ridge Pottery Vintage Student Hand Thrown Vase

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Rare Native American Sioux Pine Ridge Pottery Vintage Student Hand Thrown Vase:
$350.00

Sioux Pine Ridge Pottery

My first impressions upon seeing this piece was the striking beauty of the color, glaze, earthiness, and obvious human touch. However, my second impression was, mmmm, this is so unrefined it was probably done by a high school student in art class. Going with my first impression, I purchased the piece. After purchasing, I began to research about the signature \"Ridge\" on the bottom of the vase. Finding Pine Ridge Pottery, though looking much more refined, caused me to dig deeper in curiosity to see if this could be the connection. Here\'s what I found: align=\"left\"> In the 1930s the Work Progress Association (WPA) setup a boarding school on the reservations, the goal being to remove children from their homes and place them in school where they spoke only English.

There is no tradition of pottery amongst the Lakota Sioux Indians of the Great Plains - the Sioux were a nomadic group that followed the bison herds and as such were light travelers.

The WPA project brought white instructors to the boarding school, to provide pottery for home use and to help the Indians sustain themselves as craftspeople. Bruce Doyle was hired in 1937 to run the ceramics program in the high school....Doyle is credited with making molds at the Pine Ridge Reservation and with formulating glazes suitable to local clays.

The years 1937-1940 are considered to have been the most productive at the Pine Ridge high school pottery. Doyle built two large kilns and taught both molding and throwing. Pottery supported the other craft programs during this period, earning $40,000 for the school. Doyle left in 1940 to take a promotion to principal in Allen, S.D., but his trainees maintained the pottery program for quite some time after his departure. However, sometime during the 1940s the production of Pine Ridge pottery at the high school ended.

Pine Ridge produced a good variety of ware, much having geometric cream-colored slip decoration executed in sgraffito (glaze applied then scratched away in decorative patterns, revealing the clay underneath). The clay was often red and covered with a clear glaze. Plain glazes of several colors were featured as well. Peter Flaherty commented that the pieces with a milky top glaze are particularly beautiful.

The description seems to fit perfectly well with this piece. These students had never done pottery before. They were learning in a high school. The imperfections of the piece speak of the learning experiences of these indigenous novices. The refined pieces that you mostly see on the internet are molds, and done by those who were well-skilled, and began to make a profession out of their work. To me, this piece speaks of historical value, rarity, & authenticity of student involvement. Having been a teacher in an alternative school, I recognize the importance of letting students develop over time & valuing what they make irregardless of perfection.

This pottery also fits with the description of red clay & glaze. I would say that the glaze is kind of clear, slightly milky with speckles mixed within. The glaze was put on the exterior as well as the interior. After the glaze was put on, it appears the clay was then engravedin the spiraling geometric pattern that you can see in the photos.

I have no idea how many student pieces were produced at the school, but even if fetching $5 ea at the time, the production would have been 8,000 during those early years mentioned. And Doyle could have been producingsome of those himself. I\'m not sure if Doyle would have had students sign all of the pieces the same way, but it being signed \"Ridge\" is entirely possible, even ifnot typically done. Some students just like to be different or concise. The evidence appears to be conclusive about this piece, produced by a student of the Sioux Pine Ridge High Schoolcirca 1939.

Again, this piece speaks ofvalue due tohistory, rarity, & authentic Sioux student involvement.