Southwest Indian Pottery Cochiti Pueblo, KO-TYIT Figurines

Thirteen Piece Cochiti Pueblo Pottery Polychrome Nacimiento by Felipa Trujillo [SOLD]

Category: Figurines
Origin: Cochiti Pueblo, KO-TYIT
Medium: clay, pigment
Size: Tallest 5”
Item # C4267

SOLD

This rare 13-piece pottery nacimiento, made by Felipa Trujillo of Cochiti Pueblo, consists of the three-piece Holy Family, three Kings, two shepherds, four animals and a young girl. Mary and Joseph are kneeling next to the Baby Jesus who is snugly in a cradleboard. Each of the kings appears with gifts for the Baby Jesus. The kings are dressed in native clothing. The shepherds each carry a staff and one has a lamb and the other has a sheep dog. The other animals are a donkey with a fagot of wood and a cow.

In the book The Pueblo Storyteller by Barbara Babcock, she states that there are early female figures with features resembling later ones made by Felipa Trujillo, but those later ones were made in the 1960s and 1970s. If this is true, then Felipa Trujillo (1908-1986) must have been one of the earliest Cochiti potters to do so, following Helen Cordero. Felipa was married to Paul Trujillo. They had a daughter, Josie Hand, who also was a potter.

Babcock also states that Felipa Trujillo began making storyteller figurines in the mid-1960s. We know that Helen Cordero made the first one in 1964, so Felipa Trujillo must not have been far behind her. Felipa Trujillo was one of the seven artists represented in the Museum of International Folk Art exhibit "What is Folk Art?" in 1973. Again, it seems obvious that Felipa Trujillo was one of the earliest potters to make storytellers. It is not known when she made the first nacimiento but there is one pictured in the book Nacimientos that is dated 1975. Felipita stated that she was asked if she would make a nacimiento in 1969 and she said she would try. It is assumed, then, that she made her first one around 1970.