Santa Clara Domed Shape Polychrome Seed Jar [SOLD]

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Camilio Sunflower Tafoya, Santa Clara Pueblo Artist

close up view of the top of this seed jarAs collectors are well aware, pottery making at the pueblos is and has always been a family affair. Males and females joined together to produce pottery. According to Margaret Tafoya, her brothers Camilio and Manuel joined her husband Alcario in digging clay for the entire family. From this early start, Camilio developed into a potter himself.

 

Beginning in the mid-1920s, Camilio was among the earliest carvers of blackware and redware pottery at Santa Clara.  He grew up watching his mother, Sara Fina Tafoya, make pottery.  His sister Margaret and brother-in-law Alcario Tafoya, also were early carvers.

 

Earlier pottery produced by Camilio was traditional black carved wares. After his son, Joseph Lonewolf, started the intricately carved sgraffito style, Camilio followed his lead. 

 

Camilio Sunflower Tafoya (1902-1995) signature

This seed jar by Camilio is from the personal collection of his son, Joseph Lonewolf, who passed away on November 9, 2014.  It was brought to us by Katheryn Lonewolf and was the only of this style that Joseph had kept of his father’s work.  He must have thought it special.

 

The design features the face of the sun on the dome of the pot and flute players and other petroglyph-style figures encircling the top.  Basically hidden from view is an elaborate Avanyu on the underside of the dome, appreciated only when one picks up the seed jar and turns it over.  The seed jar is signed Camilio Sunflower Tafoya Santa Clara Pueblo 82 on the underside with the item number 519C2 etched into the clay.

 

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from the estate of Joseph Lonewolf, son of Camilio Tafoya

Recommended Reading: The Pottery Jewels of Joseph Lonewolf, the Dandick Company, Scottsdale, 1975.  

 

 

Camilio Sunflower Tafoya, Santa Clara Pueblo Artist
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