Glazed stoneware, 1950, from the Peon Game series, initialed "DH" and stamped with the mark of Iron Mountain Stoneware, Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, numbered "1", from an edition of 15.

9 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 8 in.

From the Estate of the late Patricia J. Shaw, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Exhibited:
Donal Hord Retrospective, California First Bank, La Jolla, California, 1976.
Literature:
The Journal of San Diego History, 1985, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, page 204, no. 108.

Donald Hord attended craft classes from a young age at the San Diego Evening High School, studying sculpture with Anna Valentien. By the age of sixteen, he began to exhibit his work locally. In 1926, Hord attended the Santa Barbara School of the Arts studying bronze casting under Archibald Dawson. In 1927, he traveled to Mexico before being invited to join the Contemporary Artists of San Diego in 1929, the youngest of its eleven members. Soon after, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts with Walker Hancock and the Beaux Arts Institute in New York. By the 1930s, Hord started exhibiting his work throughout Southern California where it began to receive critical acclaim.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the Hord experienced tremendous growth and national recognition. He was named a member of the National Sculpture Society, the National Academy of Design, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He obtained two Guggenheim fellowships and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1953, he was awarded the Fine Arts Medals from the American Institute of Architects and the California Council of Architects. In 1954, he traveled to Europe and Egypt. He continued to travel and complete commissions before suffering a fatal heart attack in 1966.

Peon is an Indian game played with eight players. There are two sides made up of players from different tribes or bands. The object of the game is for one side to win all the tally sticks. The game lasts through the night and is accompanied by betting.

A place is selected to build a small fire where one player sits down and calls "pe-own-e." until someone eventually sits down with them and holds their blanket on his lap. Eventually, more players will come until there is a full team on each side. Support singers will stand behind the players while the game is in progress and sing the "Peon Songs", which set the tone of the game. This sculpture depicts a team seated with their blanket swaying to the Peon Songs.

Two minor areas of abrasion to the reverse.