Navajo Water Pine Pitch Basket By Etta Mae Rock For Sale
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Navajo Water Pine Pitch Basket By Etta Mae Rock:
$590.00
Offered byAntique American Indian Art, LLC---AAIA---Navajo Water Pine Pitch Basket By Etta Mae Rock
Late 20th Century
Size 12.5" H x 10.5" D
Hand Woven with Pine Pitch and Horse Hair Lugs
Excellent Condition
Etta Rock (born around 1940s, active in Bluff, Utah, on the Navajo Nation) is widely regarded as the "Queen of Pitch pots" and one of the most renowned Navajo basket weavers in the world. Over her nearly 50-year career, she has produced thousands of these baskets, selling them to trading posts, museums, and collectors across the American Southwest. Rock sources her distinctive reddish-hued pitch from piñon pine trees near her home, applying it first to the exterior and then the interior (using water to spread it evenly as it cools). While functional baskets are practical for daily use, many of her works—like the one in the Natural History Museum of Utah—are oversized artistic pieces symbolizing Navajo cultural and spiritual themes.
The "Navajo Water Pine Pitch Basket" (also known as a pitch pot or pitch jug) by Etta Rock refers to a traditional Navajo woven vessel designed to hold water. These baskets are crafted by Navajo women using sumac or willow for the wicker base, then sealed inside and out with melted piñon pine pitch (a natural tree resin) to make them waterproof. This technique predates Navajo pottery and was likely adopted from neighboring Southern Paiute tribes. The pitch gives the basket a glossy, reddish-brown finish and allows it to carry liquids without leaking—essential in the arid Southwest. Horse skin or horsehair handles are often added for portability.
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