Burnished Black-on-black Jar Signed Marie & Santana [SOLD]

This is an exceptional small black jar with an extraordinary burnish. Traditionally, Maria would have made the jar, her sister Clara would have polished it, her daughter-in-law Santana would have painted it, and her son Adam would have fired it. It appears that this was probably the case.

This beautiful Black-on-black jar features cloud designs encircling the shoulder. It is a very simple and very elegant Maria and Santana Martinez creation. It is signed Marie + Santana, a signature used between the mid-1940s and the mid-1950s. Following the death of Maria’s husband, Julian, in 1943, her daughter-in-law, Santana, began painting the designs on Maria’s pottery for her. This continued for just over a decade, and then Maria’s son Popovi Da started helping his mom.

This jar is in excellent condition for a piece that dates to the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s.

COMMENTS: Some experts have contended that smothering pottery during the firing process creates a carbon smoke that penetrates the pottery, turning it black. Even though several books describing black pueblo pottery attribute the color change to carbon, the reduction of iron oxide is the correct mechanism. Ceramicists, describing ancient styles of Old World pottery, state that iron impurities in clay form red oxide at red heat, but if air is lacking during firing, iron impurities in clay form black magnetite.