Acoma Pueblo Black-on-white Dish with prehistoric Mimbres Designs [SOLD]

Anita Garcia Lowden was the daughter of Jesse Garcia and sister of Stella Shutiva. She was one of the earlier Acoma potters to use Mimbres designs. She passed away at a relatively young age before her work could be appreciated and collected by the wave of collectors that sprang up in the decades following the 1970s.

According to Dillingham, potters began signing their name to their work sometime in the 1950s, but some Acoma potters indicated that an earlier date or a later date might be more accurate.  Grace Chino says her mother, Marie Z. Chino, signed her pottery when she and Lucy Lewis began to do exhibitions at Window Rock, Arizona, in the late 1940s.  Mary Histia presented a pot to a friend in 1952 and signed her name in pencil.  So, it is probably safe to say that most Acoma potters began signing their wares in the decade of the 1950s.

It was also in the decade of the 1950s that Acoma potters began to reproduce Mimbres designs on their pottery.  This dish by Anita Lowden reproduced a Mimbres design that appears to be a sporting game between two men, a kind of stick ball game.

Condition:  The dish is structurally in excellent condition.  There is some abrasion of the black paint around the rim of the dish.

Provenance: from the collection of Katherine H. Rust

Recommended Reading: Mimbres Painted Pottery by J. J. Brody