Posted 10 years ago
Tangoes
(195 items)
Hi I just got this kachina doll ? at my local thrift store ($7.50)
And would love to know anything about this
Kachina doll or if anyone has seen one like this before it stands 14"h and it is signed
Yellow corn but no other signatures
Thanks for reading.
Whether this is an authentic kachina doll, depends on who made it. Only the pueblo tribes have kachinas in their culture, and of those, only the Hopi and Zuni carve kachina dolls for sale.
Navajo carvers carve souvenir figures that are sold as "kachina dolls" but since the Navajo do not have kachinas in their culture/religion, their carvings are not recognized by collectors as being authentic kachina dolls. Many times the figures they carve have no similarities to the kachina they are supposedly depicting, and often they are complete "fantasy" figures, with no connection to any known kachina.
I can tell you that there is a "Yellow Corn Maiden" kachina (Takus Mana), and this could be considered a fairly accurate representation. However, the way it is signed pretty much indicates it was not carved by a Hopi or Zuni carver, who would sign with their own name (so their work wouldn't be mistaken for a Navajo "fake") and who would also use the kachina's real name, Yellow Corn Maiden, if they included that information. Navajo-carved figures usually just have the title of the carving, like this, and usually written with a felt pen.
I would add that if you buy directly from the Navajo carvers themselves, they usually call their carvings "dolls" not "kachina dolls." Or just "carvings."
The deception primarily occurs when those carvings are re-sold on the secondary market as "kachina dolls." Navajo carvings can be bought for a fraction of the cost of an authentic Hopi kachina doll, so there can be an opportunity for a huge markup by representing a Navajo carved doll as a Hopi kachina doll. Most collectors can instantly tell the difference, but the novice buyer often can't, or isn't even aware of the distinction.