Acoma Pueblo Depressed Rim Jar [SOLD]

The Pueblo of Acoma is located about 45 miles west of Albuquerque and 16 miles south of Interstate 40.  The original village is perched on top of a mesa at an elevation of about 5000 feet above sea level and about 1000 feet above the surrounding ground level.  Nearby is Mount Taylor—sacred to the Native peoples—rising to eleven thousand feet above sea level.

The village of Acoma exists somewhat in a time warp.  Very little has changed atop the mesa.  The houses are adobe or rock, the streets are dirt, and there is no electricity available.  Potters work in the same manner as those hundreds of years ago.  It is a quiet and restful place to create pottery.  Many of the potters also live in the surrounding villages of Acomita and McCartys. 

In the early 20^th 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 A.D.  Designs consisted of curvilinear and rectilinear opposed hatched 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.

This Acoma jar is unusual in that its neck rolls inward to the jar rather than rising upward.  I have seen published examples of this, both historic and contemporary, but have never seen an explanation for this shape.  The jar dates to circa 1920s.  There is a 1935 photograph of Juanita Johnson published in The Pottery of Acoma Pueblo, by Harlow and Lanmon, on page 446.  The potter is seated on a blanket with several pieces of pottery, one of which is similar to this one.  There is an inset photograph of another jar that is identical to this one with the incurving rim and Tularosa design that is dated c1920.

Condition. There is a lateral crack on the top curve of the jar and it appears to have occurred when the jar was first made.

Recommended Reading: Acoma & Laguna Pottery by Rick Dillingham

Provenance:  originally in the collection of Santa Fe poet, writer and scholar Witter Bynner (1881-1968) who moved to Santa Fe in 1922.   Purchased by current owner from Nat Owings Gallery, Santa Fe