Special Value Offer: Cochiti Pueblo Black Bear and Two Cubs [R]

C3445-storyteller.jpg

+ Add to my watchlist Forward to Friend


Louis Naranjo, Cochiti Pueblo Potter
  • Category: Figurines
  • Origin: Cochiti Pueblo, KO-TYIT
  • Medium: clay, pigment
  • Size: 5-1/2” tall x 6” wide x 4-1/2” deep
  • Item # C3445
  • Price No Longer Available

Special Value Offer: the consignor has requested that we drop the price of this figurine by 20% from the original price of $2500 to a new price of $2000.

Louis Naranjo and his wife, Virginia, were standard bearers for the proud figurative pottery tradition of Cochiti Pueblo. They crafted their figurines at their kitchen table in their comfortable adobe home at the pueblo. They worked almost every day crafting their art with great care, joking and exchanging the gossip of the day as they went along, accompanied by television, children and grandchildren. Their art provided a good life for them and it provided a legacy that will be with us for another century or more.

 

Louis and Virginia Naranjo had a wonderful sense of humor. They fashioned figurines in clay of bikini clad men and women with cameras dangling from their necks, mermaids, men with baseball caps, Santa Claus, and many other characters. Also, they crafted angels, storytellers, padres, nacimientos and pueblo dancers.  Some figurines are co-signed by Louis and Virginia and others by Louis alone.

 

I believe Louis was the first to make bear storytellers. He once explained why he began making them. He was hunting one day and came across a female bear with two cubs. He watched the cubs playing and their antics inspired him to create the bear storyteller figurines.

 

Louis Naranjo (1932-1997) signatureCondition: This figurine is over 20 years old and is in excellent condition. It is signed Louis Naranjo Cochiti, N.M.

Provenance: from the collection of a gentleman from San Francisco, California

Recommended Reading: There is an excellent article on Louis and Virginia Naranjo in Indians of New Mexico, edited by Richard C. Sandoval and Ree Sheck. Published by New Mexico Magazine, Santa Fe, 1990. ISBN 0-937206-16-4. It may be available from the publisher.

 

Louis Naranjo, Cochiti Pueblo Potter
  • Category: Figurines
  • Origin: Cochiti Pueblo, KO-TYIT
  • Medium: clay, pigment
  • Size: 5-1/2” tall x 6” wide x 4-1/2” deep
  • Item # C3445
  • Price No Longer Available

C3445-storyteller.jpgC3445-large.jpg Click on image to view larger.