Maude Welch, North Carolina Cherokee Indian pottery jar. Tall neck form with figural handles depicting braves with long braids extending down to side of the pot. Signed in script on base, and dated, "Made by Maude Welch Cherokee N.C. 7-2-37". 6" H. 2nd quarter of the 20th century. Biography (courtesy Western Carolina University): Maude French Welch (1894-1953) was was born near Cooper's Creek in the Birdtown section of the Qualla Boundary. In the 1920s she lived in South Carolina, where she met some of the most accomplished of Catawba potters. Returning to the Qualla Boundary, Welch began producing pottery in earnest and was quickly rewarded.While largely self-taught, Welch continued to add to her repertoire of traditional pottery forms and sometimes added hand-shaped embellishments. Welch used a variety of tools to shape her pottery and used the same polishing stone for more than twenty-five years. She briefly experimented with pottery kilns, but abandoned the practice because customers preferred her signature mottled tan and smoky-black pottery, achieved by more traditional methods. A 1935 report on pottery called her the most talented potter on the Reservation, and some contend that Welch led the revival of pottery art among the Cherokee.

Overall very good condition with minor/shallow chipping to face and hair of one handle. Body with scattered scratching. Wear to base.