Acoma Pueblo Black-on-white Olla with Tularosa Design [SOLD]

Lucy Lewis’s Legacy: The Acoma Jar and the Continuity of Tularosa Tradition

The previous owner of this magnificent very large olla specified that it was the work of Lucy Lewis. We do not have any documentation to substantiate such an attribution, but we are presenting it as an Acoma jar by Lucy Lewis based on the owner's statement.

It is a gorgeous jar with a high shoulder reaching about 2/3rds up from the base. The jar expands outward and upward from its 3-⅝" base to a width of 14 inches. Except for the 2-¾" red lower section, the jar is filled to the rim with Tularosa prehistoric designs. The predominant designs are the large swirls that dominate the lower body and the shoulder sections. The use of Tularosa designs by potters of today shows their respect for those who came before them and for the beautiful works they left behind. Certainly, potters a hundred years from now will reciprocate and use designs from the twentieth- and twenty-first century potters-a continuation of tradition.

In the early twentieth century, potters at Acoma Pueblo began using designs from ancient pottery of the Tularosa region of New Mexico. Tularosa Black-on-white pottery existed from 1150 to 1325 AD. Designs consisted of curvilinear and rectilinear opposed hachured and solid bands. Using these ancestral designs fits well with the concept of adding ground-up potsherds to use as temper in new pottery. Every Acoma pot has a portion of a previous pot incorporated into its existence. Using ancestral designs is a complimentary act.

The justification for Acoma potters using Tularosa designs is a test trench dug at Acoma that revealed small amounts of pottery dating between AD 1100 and 1300, among which were Tularosa Black-on-white. If these existed at Acoma in circa AD1200, then the use of such designs was quite acceptable to potters of the twentieth century. There was no one to object to their reintroduction by modern potters.

This is one of the most attractive styles ever produced by the Acoma potters. As black and white photographs often are stronger in appeal than color photographs (see Ansel Adams), so too are some of the black and white pottery that is often overlooked by collectors in preference to three- and four-color examples. This jar is an excellent example to illustrate this point.

Condition: this jar is structurally in excellent condition but there has been some overpainting to enhance the black pigment where it was abraded.

Provenance: this Acoma Pueblo Black-on-white Olla with Tularosa Design is from the collection of an Albuquerque family

Recommended Reading: LUCY M. LEWIS American Indian Potter by Susan Peterson

TAGS: Acoma Pueblo, Pueblo Pottery, Lucy Martin Lewis