Isleta Pueblo Small White Bear Figurine with Cub [SOLD]

This polished white-slip bear figurine by Stella Teller is, I believe, unique to her.  I do not recall any other pueblo potter making polar bears.  The adult bear wears a turquoise hieshe necklace as does the cub in her lap.  The cub is holding up one leg in the manner human babies often do. 

Teller has a long career of making pottery figurines and has consistently won prizes for them since she made her first storyteller figurine in 1978, the same year Adobe Gallery opened its doors in Old Town Albuquerque. Her great-grandmother, Marcellina Jojola, her grandmother, Emeklia Lente Carpio, and her mother, Felicita Jojola, all were potters.  Teller began working in clay at the age of eight, helping her mother slip and polish small pots. She is now a fulltime potter creating figurines and pottery in her studio at Isleta Pueblo.

Her pottery is distinguished from traditional Isleta Polychrome wares by its distinctive colors, which she says are all natural.  The light gray, which has become her trademark, is produced by mixing white clay with manganese.  She was one of the first potters to insert turquoise cabs into the clay. 

One of Stella's earlier pieces was part of the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibit in 1987. She is also represented in museums and galleries in California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. She is the mother of four daughters, all of whom are successful potters.

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from a collector of pueblo pottery from Albuquerque

Recommended Reading:  The Pueblo Storyteller: Development of a Figurative Ceramic Tradition by Barbara Babcock, et al.