Cochiti Pueblo Seated Adult Storyteller with a Jar on her Head [SOLD]

Dorothy Loretto Trujillo, who passed away in 1999, was an outstanding potter. She was originally from Jemez Pueblo, but moved to Cochiti following her marriage to Onofre Trujillo, and obtained permission to make pottery using Cochiti clay.  After moving to Cochiti Pueblo, Dorothy started making pottery in the Cochiti style, abandoning her Jemez style.

Dorothy Trujillo was one of the early potters to make storyteller figurines.  She was from a family of outstanding potters. Her sisters, Mary E. Toya, Marie Edna Coriz, Alma Concha Loretto, Fannie Wall Loretto, and Lenora Lupe Lucero, are famous potters as well.  Interestingly, her sisters also married out of their native pueblo and moved to the pueblo of their spouses.  Dorothy began making Storytellers before 1970.

This storyteller has a lap full of children—the little boy is holding a very large drum, and the little girl is holding a doll or a younger child.  The adult has a Cochiti olla on her head.  This figurine was originally purchased in the late 1980s according to the current owner.

Condition: this Cochiti Pueblo Seated Adult Storyteller with a Jar on her Head is in original condition with minor abrasions on the underside

Provenance: from the collection of a client from Albuquerque who provided us with over 100 storyteller figurines two years ago for an exhibit.

Recommended Reading: The Pueblo Storyteller: Development of a Figurative Ceramic Tradition by Barbara Babcock