Isleta Pueblo Polychrome Chile Serving Bowl [SOLD]

Around 1879, a group of Laguna families split from their native village and moved and settled at Isleta Pueblo in a village they named Oraibi. It was these Laguna potters who introduced Polychrome pottery to Isleta, eventually replacing the traditional Isleta Red-on-tan pottery. Small bowls, such as this one, were made in large quantities and taken into Albuquerque every day where they were sold to the passengers on the AT&SF train traveling between Chicago and Los Angeles.

At Isleta Pueblo, this vessel would have been used as a serving bowl at the dining table. It was coil formed in the traditional manner using native clays with rag-polished white slip, and vegetal black and mineral orange pigments.

The whole of the exterior surface is white-slipped, with the interior bearing a thin application of ferric oxide red mineral slip. The rim top is black, with the design just below, between the rim and base of the bowl, in rectangular bands separated by vertical bands with checkerboard squares. Suspended below the lower pair of framing lines is a most unique display of cloud elements, outlined in brown pigment.

This is an excellent example of a 20th century bowl from Isleta Pueblo. It probably dates to the mid-20^th century

Condition: a lateral crack from the rim to the base has been professionally stabilized.  Normal wear patterns to the painted surface

Recommended Reading: Pueblo Pottery of the New Mexico Indians: Ever Constant, Ever Changing by Betty Toulouse

Provenance: from the extensive collection of a Santa Fe resident who has unfortunately moved to another city and found it necessary to greatly reduce her collection.