Kewa Pueblo Black-over-cream Aguilar Jar [SOLD]

During the period of about 1890 to 1915, there were two sisters at Santo Domingo Pueblo (now Kewa Pueblo) who produced the finest pottery ever seen from that pueblo. Their jars were tall and graceful, had high shoulders, and were expertly painted.

The main body of a jar most often was decorated with large ovoid elements outlined in deep black squares. The neck, more often than not, had two distinct bands of design: a sinusoidal design for one and floral-type elements for the other. Framing lines separated the design bands.

The heights of the jars are most often close to the same dimension as the diameters. The shoulder is about ¾ of the way up from the base of the vessel. Ceremonial breaks in the designs are common. Black rims and polished red interiors of the vessel neck are always present. Indented undersides are standard as would be the wiped-on red band under the decorated area.

Both sisters made Black-on-cream jars before branching out into making the bold black jars with thin-line cream lines and the strong black and red designs-each sister specialized in one of these.  There has been no attempt to assign the Black-on-cream to one or the other sister so generally both names are used for that style.

This jar has all the attributes of jars made by the Aguilar sisters in the early 1900s.  It is in excellent condition.  Black-light examination shows no repairs or over-paint.  The jar is as originally made with the exception of natural wear from almost 100 years of existence.

References:  There is very little published information on the Aguilar sisters.  They are mentioned in several publications, but nothing of great detail.  Some of the references we can recommend are:

• 1. Batkin, Jonathan. Pottery of the Pueblos of New Mexico 1700-1940. The Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Colorado Springs. 1987.
• 2. Chapman, Kenneth M. The Pottery of Santo Domingo Pueblo: A Study of Its Decoration. Memoirs of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Volume 1, Santa Fe. 1936.
• 3. Douglas, Frederick H. Santo Domingo Pottery of the "Aguilar" Type. Clearing House for Southwestern Museums. Denver Art Museum Newsletter No.37, Denver. June 1941.
• 4. _________________. Modern Pueblo Pottery Types. Denver Art Museum Leaflets 53-54. Denver. February 1933.
• 5. Toulouse, Betty. Pueblo Pottery of the New Mexico Indians. A Museum of New Mexico Press Guidebook, Santa Fe. 1977.