From the Studio of Enrico Donati

By Carter B. Horsley

Enrico Donati was a composer and Surrealist painter who was born in Milan, Italy and eventually moved to New York where he lived at the Gainsborouogh Building on Central Park South.  In 1934, he traveled to the American Southwest when he was 25 years old, bringing with him some European pheasant feathers and Swiss knives and Venetian beads to "barter" with the Indians.  "You left things out overnight, and the next day there was something wonderful in its place," he once recalled.

His collection is strong in Kachina dolls but also contains some excellent African and Oceanic pieces.

The most startling and dramatic work in the collection is Lot 32, a half male figure of wood and fiber from Malekula Island, Vanuatu with hands outstretched.  It has a modest estimate of $5,000 to $7,000.  It failed to sell!

Lot 29, Malekula Island fiber and spderweb headdress, Vanuatu, 41 3/8 inches high

From the same region and culture is Lot 29, a very spectacular fiber and spiderweb headdress with feathers that is 41 3/8 inches high.  It has a modest estimate of $7,000 to $10,000.  It sold for only $6,250 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.

Lot 33, headdress, fiber and sponge, Sulka, New Britain, 26 1/4 inches high

Lot 33 is a quite fascinating fiber and sponge headdress from Sulka, New Britain.  It is 26 1/4 inches high.  It has an estimate of only $3,000 to $5,000.  It sold for $1,250.

Lot 2, Hopi polychrome wood kachina doll, left; Lot 1, Hopi polychrome wood kachina doll, probably depicting Lenya, 13 7/8 inches, right

Lot 2 is a Hopi polychrome wood kachina doll that is 11 inches high.   It has an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000.  It sold for $59,375.  

Lot 1 is a large Hopi kachina doll that the catalogue states is probably depicting Lenya.  It is 13 7/8 inches high.  It has an estimate of $8,000 to $12,000.  It sold for $37,500.

Lots 1 and 2 were once in the collection of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation and were sold via exhcange with Julius Carlebach in 1946.

Lot 4, Hopi polychrome wood kachina doll, attributed to Wilson Tawaquaptewa, 10 3/4 inches high

Lot 4 is a Hopi kachina doll that is attributed to Wilson Tawaquaptewa.  It is 10 3/4 inches high and has an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.  It sold for $23,750.

The catalogue provides the following commentary about Wilson Tawaquaptewa:

"The kachina dollars made by Wilson Tawaquaptewa are among the most intriguing examples of twentieth-century Native American art.  The uniqueness of the carvings themselves, Tawaquaptewa's importance as a Hopi religious and political figure, and the interrelationship between Tawaquaptewa's art and his religious-political role make his kachina dolls specially interesting.  Tawquaptewas was born in 1873 into the Bear Clan of the Hopi village of Oraibi, located on Third Mesa in northeastern Arizona.  At the time of Tawaquaptewa's birth, Oraibi was the largest and most important of the Hopi villages and within Oraibi, the Bear clan was its most signficant clan.  In 1904, after a youth and young adulthood about which little is known, Tawaquaptewa assumed the most important religious and political position in the village - that of kikmongwi or village chief.  He remained in this position until his death in 1960, with a few interruptions related to political imprisonement or health problems....In accepting the position of kikmongwi Tawaquaptewa assumed centerstage in a major controversy.  The conflict involved a split between to Hopi groups, generally referred to as the Friendlies (or Progessives) and the Hostiles (or Traditonalists).  Tawaquaptewa was the leader of the Friendlies, and as the name implies,he and his followers supported limited cooperation between the Hopi people and representatives ofthe United States government.....Sometime well after the events of the 1906 split perhaps in the 1920s,Tawaquaptewa bean to carve and sell kachina dolls.  He became a familar figure to the ever increasing number of tourists, sitting on his doorstep in Oraibi selling his dolls for fifty cents or a dollar or two....Starting in the 1880s, an increasing number of Hopi men had began to earn some United Staes currency by selling dolls to tourists.  Nonetheless, theckacine dollas that Tawaquaptewa sold to the public were unique.  What distinguishes his dolls from all others of the same era is that his carvings ostensibly representing specific Kachina, bear little resemblance to the actual kachina figures that dance in the villages during the Hopi six month ceremonial cycle....A major exhibition of Mr. Tawaquaptewa's work was recently mounted at the Birmingham Museum of Art."

Lot 13, large Hopi polychrome wood kachina doll depicting a snake priest, 19 3/4 inches high

Lot 13 is a large Hopi polychrome wood kachina doll that depicts a snake priest.  It is 19 3/4 inches high and has an estinate of  $15,000 to $25,000.  The catalogue notes that snake priest kachinas "first appeared in the late 1800s, probably to satisfy the desires of Euro-Americans who 'discovered' the Hopi Snake Dance ceremony in the late 1870s....The ceremony...was an ancient petition to the gods for rain, in which snakes, the supernatural messengers to the divine, are danced while carried in the mouth.  The cerrmony, which occurs in August of each year, also commemorates and gives thanks to Ti'yo, the ancestral snake youth and patron of the Snake Priesthood order.  In addition the ceremony bears both military and memorial aspects, as the dancers are marked with the symbols of Pookanghooya, the Little Wa rGod,and deceased members of the society are represented on the Snake altar.  Ritual footraces and the snake dance occur on the last day of the elaborate ritual observance ewhich originally spanned nine days.  On the days of the dance, lines of Atnelope and Snake Dance Priests face one another and sing.  At the conclusion of the song, the Antelope Priests remain in position singing and shaking their rattles while the Snake Dancers pair off.  The rear man of the pair places his left hand on the left shoulder of the one in front, and together they dance forward to a covered bower.  Here the forward man (the Carrier) kneels and receives a snake, which he holds between his lips as he rises and continues to dance  The rear man (the Hugger) follows behind the carrier with one or both hands draped over his shoulers, and calms the rattlesnake fanning it with a feather wand  A third Snake Priest, a Gatherer, picks up the snake after the Carrier releases it, returning it to the ceremonial bower, or kisi."

The lot sold for $104,500.

Lot 6, large Hopi polychrome wood kachina doll, depicting Umtoinaga, 18 3/4 inches high

Lot 6 is a large Hopi polychrome wood kachina doll depicting Umtoinaga.  It is 18 3/4 inches high and has an estimate of $8,000 to  $12,000.  It sold for $40,625.

Lot 24, Tlingit polychrome wood shaman figure, 9 inches high

Lot 24 is an interesting Tlingit polychrome wood shaman figure that is leaning forward.  It is 9 inches high and was presented in 1929 by Dr. A. Eugene Austin to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, Smithsonian Instiutution and then deaccessioned via exchange with Julius Carlebach in 1946.  It has an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000.  It sold for $31,250.

Lot 34, a Sepik River Region bark and polychrome mange kundi headdress, Papua New Guinea, 30 3/4 inches high

Lot 34 is a lovely and very colorful mange kundi headdress from the Sepik River region of Papua New Guinea.  It is 30 3/4 inches high and has an estimate of $4,000 to $6,000.  It failed to sell.