HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



western districts, is not represented in any of the collections examined. 

 Casas Grandes bowls are all very small and generally deep. Of the 

 twenty-two examples in the Phillips collection the largest is 8 inches 

 in diameter and 4 inches deep; there is an almost perfect gradation 

 in size from this example to ones not more than an inch across. The 

 deep bowls are ornamented only on the exterior, the shallow ones 

 both inside and out. The general scheme of decoration follows that 

 of the jars, although the difference in shape produces a somewhat 

 different arrangement of the elements. 



DECORATION 



The decoration of the commonest single form, the jar, may be 

 taken as the standard; other vessels, be they effigies or bowls, are 

 ornamented with what are evidently parts of jar designs or with 

 single elements taken from them. 



Pigments. — The painted designs are usually polychrome, black and 

 red figures on a light background. The black paint, though occasion- 

 ally of a clear sharp tone, more often has a rusty-brown tinge. The 

 pigment on a few pieces shows a slight luster or semi-glaze, and two 

 specimens (C-4403, C-4272) bear designs in well-marked dark-green 

 glaze not distinguishable from that of certain Little Colorado vessels. 

 Whatever the nature of the normal black paint, it evidently flowed 

 freely and evenly from the brush, for the lines of the decoration, even 

 where long and very thin, are singularly sharp and well sustained. 



The red, of a rich dark-scarlet shade, is almost always a secondary 

 pigment used to fill spaces inclosed by black lines, to set off black 

 elements and in general to enrich or liven up the pattern. (For colors 

 Lumholtz' fine plates should be consulted.) It is softer than either 

 the black or the surface of the ware and is consequently often partly 

 rubbed and worn away. 



Design. — In looking at a collection of Casas Grandes pottery the 

 qualities that first strike one are the richness- of the colors and the 

 delicate accuracy of the delineation. The richness of color is due to 

 the mellow, old-ivory tints of the background and the harmonious 

 combination of the dark reds and subdued blacks of the decoration. 

 The accuracy of delineation is emphasized by the use of numbers of 

 long, thin framing lines, drawn with surprising precision and most 

 evenly spaced. These framers must be considered first, as their 

 production was the initial step in the decoration of the vessels; they 

 served to lay off the fields of design and to build the framework, so 

 to speak, for the completed pattern. 



The surface of a standard Casas Grandes jar is generally treated 



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