Lot 71

Caddoan Mississippian Means-Haley Engraved Bowl

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Lot 71
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Caddoan Mississippian Means-Haley Engraved Bowl
Caddoan Mississippian Means-Haley Engraved Bowl
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Caddoan Mississippian Means-Haley Engraved Bowl

Estimate: $800 - $1,200

Current Bid: $350

(1 Bid)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 6, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Ca. 1200 - 1250 CE. Native American, Mississippian, Caddo culture, Ouachita River drainage, Arkansas, Clark County. This substantial hand-built ceramic bowl presents the characteristic hemispherical profile and dark, burnished surface of the Haley phase tradition, fired to a rich charcoal brown with warm umber mottling where the flame kissed unevenly. The form is generous and low, with a gently flared rim and a broad, rounded body curving continuously into a rounded base. Encircling the vessel's shoulder is the defining decorative register of Means-Haley Engraved ware: two bounding horizontal lines frame a continuous band of rectangular ladder-motifs, their vertical divisions executed with a fine-pointed tool drawn through the leather-hard clay with deliberate, unhurried confidence. Short oblique tick marks punctuate the margins, lending the frieze a rhythmic, almost architectural cadence.

This geometric vocabulary is characteristic of Middle Caddo ceramic expression, in which engraved registers functioned not merely as ornament but as encoded markers of social and cosmological affiliation within the densely interconnected communities of the Red River and Ouachita drainages.

Collector labels affixed to the base record the Terre Noire Creek provenience with pleasing specificity, placing this vessel within a documented Caddo locale in Clark County and conferring the kind of field attribution that serious collectors and institutions increasingly prize. A compelling exemplar of Middle Caddo ceramic artistry at its most assured.

Provenance: Private Colorado, USA Collection; ex-private Denver, Colorado, USA collection; ex-private New York, USA collection; found in the Terre Noire Creek, Clark County, Arkansas, USA

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Item # 202268

  • Condition: Fair condition. Repaired with some chipping and infill along visible break lines. Light resurfacing over a few break lines. Surface wear as shown with nicks and abrasions commensurate with age. Good remains of incised decoration. Old collection labels on interior and under side of base.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000