Fig. 683. (S. 1–2.) Front view of Fig. 682.
“It will be observed by one who attempts the manipulation of clay that striking or paddling with a smooth surface has often the tendency to extend flaws and to start new ones, thus weakening the wall of the vessel, but a ribbed or deeply figured surface properly applied has the effect of welding the clay together, of kneading the plastic surface, producing numberless minute dovetailings of the clay which connect across weak lines and incipient cracks, adding greatly to the strength of the vessel.
“That the figured stamp had a dual function, a technic and an esthetic one, is fully apparent. When it was applied to the surface it removed unevenness and welded the plastic clay into a firm, tenacious mass. Scarifying with a rude comb-like tool was employed in some sections for the same purpose, and was so used more generally on the inner surface, where a paddle or stamp could not be employed. That this was recognized as one of the functions of the stamp is shown by the fact that in many neatly finished vessels, where certain portions received a smooth finish, the paddle had first been used over the entire vessel, the pattern being afterward worked down with a polishing-stone. However, the beauty of the designs employed and the care and taste with which they were applied to the vases bear ample testimony to the fact that the function of the stamp as used in this province was largely esthetic.”
Fig. 684. (S. 1–3.) Three typical bowls from the Chaco Group of ruins, New Mexico. Dug up from debris in a lower room, Pueblo Bonito, in 1897, by W. K. Moorehead.
Of the life element in decoration on pottery, Professor Holmes writes at some length. He assembled a number of vessels on which were various decorations representing man, quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. “The conclusion reached is that there is at least a large degree of consistency, and that particular forms of creatures may be recognized far down the scale toward the geometric. Exceptions were noted, however. The symbols are occasionally intermingled, as if the significance of the particular forms had been lost sight of, the potter using them as symbols of the life idea in general, or as mere decorations.
Fig. 685. (S. about 1–4.) Four typical Chaco pitchers. Andover collection.
“As a rule, the incised designs are more highly conventional than the plastic, the eagle and the serpent being the only incised forms, so far as has been observed, realistically treated; but it was possible to recognize others through their association with the modeled forms. In vessels furnished with the head of a bird in relief, for example, the same kind of incised figures were generally found around the vessel, and these are recognized as being more or less fully conventionalized representations of wings. The same is true of the fish and its gills, fins, and tail; of the serpent and its spots and rattles, and of the frog and its legs. The relieved figures, realistically treated, become thus a key to the formal incised designs, enabling us to identify them when separately used. It will be seen, however, that since all forms shade off into the purely geometric, there comes a stage when all must be practically alike; and in independent positions, since we have no key, we fail to distinguish them, and can only say that whatever they represented to the potter they cannot be to us more than mere suggestions of the life idea. To the native potter the life concept was probably an essential association with every vessel.”
