Special Value Offer: Santa Clara Pueblo Black Melon Jar by Helen Shupla[R]

Special Value Offer: The consignor of this melon jar has authorized a price reduction of 15% from the original price of $7500 to a new price of $6375.

Helen Shupla was of Santa Clara Pueblo and Tohono O'odham tribal heritage.  She was active as a potter from around the mid-1940s until her death in 1985.  Her husband, Kenneth Shupla, was a Hopi katsina doll carver who moved to Santa Clara when he married. In pueblo culture, it is traditional for the husband to move to the wife's village.  Their daughter married Alton Komalestewa, also a Hopi.  He was mentored as a potter by Helen and began making melon jars of her style.

The melon jar shape has existed since the beginning of the 20th century, or perhaps earlier, but no one brought it to such prominence as did Helen Shupla. She developed her own technique for pushing the melon ribs outward from the inside while she was building the jar with coils of clay. Most potters build the jar, then scrape away some of the clay to form the ribs.

Still, there is no potter more famous for melon jars than Helen Shupla.  This jar by her is typical of her style.  It consists of melon ribs that have been pushed out from the inside of the jar during construction.  The entire surface was slipped in red clay and burnished to a beautiful luster, then fired in a reduction firing resulting in a beautiful black jar.  It is signed Helen Shupla Santa Clara Pueblo.

Condition:  The jar is in original condition with some minor scratches.

Recommended Reading: Santa Clara Pottery Today by Betty LeFree (Helen Shupla was one of three potters interviewed in this book)

Provenance: from a Santa Fe resident