How To Identify Early Hopi and Zuni Kachina Dolls

Tips on how to identify early Navajo and Zuni Kachinas through the eyes of art dealer Mark Sublette owner of Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson and Santa Fe. Sublette a collector of early dolls shares his expertise gained through his profession as an art dealer. He has specialized in antique Native American art for the last twenty years.

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How To Identify Early Hopi and Zuni Kachina Dolls

Today I want to discuss Kachina dolls. Kachinas are not all the same. There are Navajo Kachinas; there are Zuni Kachinas, and there are Hopi Kachinas. The latter two: Hopi and Zuni are real Kachinas that were made for tradition, which is the the tradition of the dances, and teaching the young girls about the dances. Navajo Kachinas are (yes, they're Native American made) but they're really totally made for the tourist trade, and they don't have any tradition whatsoever with Kachinas. So, if you see a Navajo Kachina it's really basically just a very touristy thing, and doesn't have the value or the spiritual importance that the Hopi or the Zuni Kachinas do. Primarily today, the contemporary pieces are Hopi. There’s still a very large group of artists that are making dolls. These are very decorative dolls. They're all wood and they're always made out of cottonwood. In fact, all Kachina dolls are (as a general rule) made out of cottonwood root. It's very, very soft, easily pliable wood, that you can feel if it's the right doll, by just lifting it. If it's super heavy, then it's probably not Hopi or Zuni doll, though occasionally you'll see something that was done in Pine. Kachina dolls were made for the girls to experience the dances. The men did the dances and the girls needed to be part of it. So, generally it was the uncles who would make the dolls (which is what we call them today – is dolls or Kachina dolls) and they would give them to their nieces, and so they could follow along and learn about the dances. These have been made for tourism and they've been made for self-use all along. The earliest dolls are somewhere about the 1880s timeframe, and some of the greatest examples of these early dolls are found in the Heard. if you go to the Heard museum, Barry Goldwater collected these early on, and you can see wonderful examples of very early and rare dolls – of all sorts of different types of dances. What we carry in our own gallery, generally are things from about 1890 to 1960s timeframe, and really emphasizing those dolls from the 1900s to the 1940s. Quite frankly, early dolls before the turn of the century are hard to find – most are in museums or private collections, so they don't really come out that often. But, you can still get great examples of Kachina dolls from the turn of the century to the 40's. And you can get a nice Kachina doll from the 30s that would be $850. The dolls themselves can help date by how they look. Early dolls that are pre-turn generally have the hands close in, and as the doll progressed in age they started to migrate to more out (like this) and by the 40s you would really see them out further (like this) and become more stick like. Those dolls that are early and have what we call the belly warmers can be very valuable, and they're usually going to be somewhere in the 1880s to 1910 timeframe. As the hand started to come out and progress, then those would be more 20s or 30s. By the time they're in the 40s they're really at their side. One of the other things that will help you date Kachinas has to do with: is it on a base or not? Later dolls that were done in (really the 60s) on are on a base. They're like a sculpture. Early dolls will rarely have a base…

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