Pottery from Santa Ana Pueblo is amongst the scarcest of all pueblo pottery. According to Batkin¹:

“As far as is known, all decorated pottery made at Santa Ana in the nineteenth century was polychrome. Reliable sources state that pottery was made in considerable quantities until 1900, although not much has survived. By the 1920s, the tradition had practically died out. Apparently no potters entered their work for judging at the Indian Fair between 1922 and 1924.”

This jar dates to the early 1900s. It is comprised of sand as a tempering agent, and has a reddish brown paste, slip, and mineral paints similar to those used at Zia. Potters at Santa Ana abandoned crushed basaltic temper and started using sand temper after reestablishing their ancestral pueblo from near Zia to a location near the Rio Grande. This occurred by the late 1700s.

This olla has somewhat straight side walls and a short concave neck band. There is a small, footed rim at the base. The decoration is typical for the 1900-1920 period. The stepped central arched element has been referred to as the “Eiffel Tower” design.

The paste shows evidence of spalling—a trait associated with sand tempering agents. This is quite typical of Santa Ana pottery.

In the recently published book on Santa Ana pottery (see recommended reading below), there is only one footed olla of this type in the 350 pieces of pottery photographed. The published one is so similar to this one that it is most likely that they were made by the same potter.

¹Pottery of The Pueblos of New Mexico 1700 – 1940. The Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Jonathan Batkin. 1987.

Recommended Reading: The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo, (click here to view details of book) by Francis Harlow, et al. (Available from Adobe Gallery).