Small Pot Taupou Is This NA?

This belongs to a friend. Wondering what it is... 2 1/4" tall and 2 3/4" across the top L.M. on the base.

 

Maybe Maricopa?

 

Yes, Maricopa.

There was a Lena Mesquerre (sometimes spelled Meskeer) whose work is dated as between ca1925 and 1940. I'm not sure if this is her signature, but the letters do work. I have a pot simply signed "Lena," but again, I can't positively say if either is by Lena Mesquerre.

There were three times when Maricopa pottery experienced a revival: 1885-1910, 1937-1940, and 1970-1972. The little pattern at the tip of the black triangle is a design associated with the 1937-1940 so-called "middle revival period."

 

Forgot to add that according to Dirt for Making Things, An Apprenticeship in Maricopa Pottery, a co-op was formed in 1938 to encourage the revival of pottery making at Maricopa, and there were 17 potters working then. Lena Mesquerre was named as one of the 17.

The decorated pots were all made for sale, and provided an important source of income for the women involved. I've found that one seldom finds two Maricopa pots remotely alike (unlike those from other southwest tribes, who tended to reproduce popular forms and patterns.) Instead, each potter seemed to be able to make pots readily identifiable as Maricopa, but each unique.

 

Thank you Taupou!