Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="Taupou, post: 3699244, member: 45"]I guess I wasn't clear.  I read the word as "Ogre," since if it read "09.75" it wouldn't be a correct date for the way the base is made, for one thing. The "0" is an "O," the "9" is a "g," the "." is what remains of the stem on the "R," and the last letter is what happened when the raised part of the wood interfered with writing the "E."   It makes more sense to say "Ogre" since that is a category of kachinas, than to write "09.75" since kachina dolls are rarely, if ever, dated.  And that would not be the way a date would be written.  I have since done a web search for "J. Creek kachina" which seems to confirm that it is Navajo.  (None of the signatures are dated, by the way.)  At least there are as many identified as Navajo as those identified as Hopi.  Some are obviously Navajo, in their use of fur, leather, feathers, and fabric, as well as the fact that few are accurate depictions of Hopi kachinas.  Some are better made than others, plus some also appear to be signed by different hands, although "J. Creek" is supposedly the carver on all of them.  I would suspect that they are not only Navajo, but "assembly line" factory items, made for the unsuspecting tourist, some better done than others.[/QUOTE]