Four-Color Polychrome Traditional Tewa Olla [SOLD]

We are often asked when pottery production began in the Southwest. It is logical to conclude that once corn growing curtailed mobility and the need for wide-ranging foraging, Southwestern Indians began to produce pottery. Clay pots began to appear about A.D. 200 and had become ubiquitous throughout the Southwest by A.D. 300.

Certainly by the 11^th century, the women were decorating their pottery for their own enjoyment and the enjoyment of their neighbors. The Pueblo Indians have always possessed an innate talent in the fine and applied arts. It’s as if they were born artists, possessing a capacity for discipline and careful work, and a fine sense of line and rhythm, which seems to be inherent in that race.

This Tewa olla is a testimony to creativity. It is a creation of a fertile artistic mind. The mixture of triangles, curves, serrations, fine lines, solid blocks, circles, and waves combine to form a design that is both dynamic and static. Every design is anchored in place and, at the same time, floats and moves about the vessel.

This is one of the most beautiful specimens to come from the hands of a pueblo potter in the early 20^th century. It most probably dates to circa 1910.