The bowl offered here has a special place with me. During my serious collecting years from mid 1996 through 2001 there were four or five pieces that were in other collections that I intensely coveted. Even after my collecting turned into a small business the desires for these certain pieces never waned. The Four Mile bowl offered here is one of those five pieces; I was able to acquire it a couple of weeks ago and now make it available to one lucky collector or institution.

The bowl measures 10.8 inches and 4.9 inches deep, it is broken and glued from five large pieces and has no plaster restoration; there is a rim chip which is clear in the photos. Four Mile bowls often time have the white (kaolin) weakened due to contact with water and dirt; this is true of this bowl so much of the white on the interior figures has been enhanced. What is so amazing is the images of two whales (note the rectangular tales), an interpretation which is agreed to by many knowledgeable scholars and collectors. The bowl was discovered in 1974 by Bob Skousen at the Pinedale ruin which is to the southwest of Showlow Arizona. What this clearly proves is that at least some of these people traveled great distances, on this occasion to either what is now the Gulf of California or possibly the Pacific coast itself. Upon their return they chronicled what they saw, in this case two whales. This very famous bowl is pictured in Bill Schenck’s book “Re-Creating the World” where it is a full page picture in Plate 71.

This is one of those very special pieces which only come to market every 20 years or so. As a point of reference the bowl sold in 1974 for a reported $13,000 …. Which 30 years ago was really a lot of money. The price of $25,000 is obviously a fair price today in 2005. Inquiries are invited.