Historic San Ildefonso Stone Polished Black Wedding Vessel [SOLD]

All of the Tewa-speaking pueblos of Northern New Mexico traditionally made blackware pottery during the historic period. This includes San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara, Nambe and Pojoaque Pueblos. Generally it is difficult to distinguish between the pueblos when the vessel is plain blackware except that we know that Ohkay Owingeh potters applied slip only to the upper portion of vessels and there is a definite line of distinction between the slipped and unslipped areas.

This wedding vessel was slipped from the top to the midpoint of the bulbous vessel body in the manner of Ohkay Owingeh pottery. Normally, based on this characteristic, we would attribute this vessel to having originated at Ohkay Owingeh. There is, however, a merchant’s printed label attached to the underside of this one that states From the Pueblo of San Ildefonso. Perhaps a merchant of long ago mistook the origin to be San Ildefonso or perhaps it truly is from there and our understanding that only Ohkay Owingeh produced partially-slipped pottery is in error.

The wedding vessel in an excellent example of late 19^th century or early 20^thcentury Tewa-speaking pueblo pottery even if we cannot be sure of our attribution to a single pueblo. It is in excellent condition. Some previous owner attached a piece of fabric to the underside to soften the impact of pottery versus shelf. The printed paper label is attached to the fabric, not to the vessel.