Mrs. Sam (Gladys) Manuelito (Navajo, 1893-1987) Sandpainting Weaving Deaccessioned from the Hopewell Museum, Hopewell, NJ 

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American Indian and Western Art: Live Salesro...

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Sep 25, 2015 - Sep 26, 2015

Set Reminder 2015-09-25 09:30:00 2015-09-26 09:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American Indian and Western Art: Live Salesroom Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-indian-and-western-art-live-salesroom-auction-858
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• Lot Description
  Mrs. Sam (Gladys) Manuelito (Navajo, 1893-1987) Sandpainting Weaving Deaccessioned from the Hopewell Museum, Hopewell, NJ 
  
  Chant:  Nightway: A subgroup of God impersonators
  Warp:  Native handspun wool, 1-ply, 11 count to the inch
  Weft:   Native handspun wool, 1-ply, 46/48 count to the inch
  
  5 ft. 7 in. x 5 ft. 5 in., Regional Period c. 1935 – 40
  
  Navajo Chantway myths, briefly summarized, recount the trials and ordeals of a hero(es) or heroine(s) usually involving various monsters or physical change of form into other animals or personages.  In each case they are rescued by the Gods and, after various purification rites and blessings, are taught the ceremony of the Chantway.  They then return home to teach it to their people.
  
  The major deities portrayed in this sandpainting are Talking God, head of the Gods, dressed in white buckskin and wearing a headdress of white eagle feathers.  He is carrying a medicine pouch of an Abert’s squirrel pelt.
  
  Opposite Talking God is Black Calling God who carries a black staff.  The other two Gods are Humpback Gods which represent mountain sheep or big horn Gods.  This God has a bag filled with fruit and black clouds with feathers attached representing sun beams.  Other accouterments represent mist, sun rays, and rain.  He is in effect a fertility symbol.
  
  The arms of the swirling log represent the four cardinal points.  The pairs of figures on them are male (round heads) and female (square heads) Yei, which are Holy People.  The female’s chest is covered with yellow corn pollen.  The four plants depicted are sacred corn representing the four cardinal points (white corn east, blue corn south, black corn north, yellow corn west).
  
  According to Wyman, the diseases cured with this ceremony include head ailments, blindness, insanity, crippling, paralysis, and headaches.
  
  Mrs. Sam (Gladys) Manuelito, 1893–1987, was the niece of the famous Navajo medicine man and weaver Hosteen Klah who encouraged her to weave sandpaintings and taught her the correct imagery.  Her work is represented in numerous museum collections.
  
  -Tyrone Campbell
  Scottsdale, AZ
  March 2015
  
  Dr. David Blackwell Hill (1887-1979) 
  
   Dr. Hill purchased American Indian art long before it was fashionable, in fact long before there were books written to educate the public about the beautiful objects America’s first peoples made.  We can only speculate about how Dr. Hill knew to purchase some of the best of the best.  Perhaps, as a Manhattanite, he saw the successful 1931 Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts at the Grand Central Art Gallery in New York City. This was the first exhibit designed specifically to show Indian cultural material (pottery, weavings, beadwork, etc.) as “Art.”  Amelia Elizabeth White was one of the organizers of this watershed exposition and, at that time, already owned an Indian shop, Ishauu, later named the Gallery of American Indian Art, on Madison Avenue. One wonders if some of the items might have come from her store.   
  
  Hill was born in Hopewell, Mercer Co., NJ.   After graduating from medical school in 1910, he married Janet A. Hurd and worked as a physician in New York City until 1952.  The Hills resided on the Upper West Side, later moving to the Upper East Side.  Upon Hill’s retirement the couple moved to Altadena, CA, where Hill died on May 9, 1979.  Hill gave his American Indian art collection to the Hopewell Museum in 1966.  
  
  Provenance: Deaccessioned From the Hopewell Museum, Hopewell, NJ; Collected and Donated by Dr. David B. Hill (1887-1979)

  Condition

  Included is the write-up and certification by Tyrone Campbell.
  
  Condition requests can be obtained via email (danica@cowans.com) or by telephone (513-871-1670). Any condition statement given, as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Cowan's Auctions shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.
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