Historic Acoma Pueblo Double-Lobed Pottery Jar

This historic Acoma Pueblo pottery jar likely dates to the early 1900s or late 1800s. We estimate this period based, most significantly, on the look and feel of the piece. Its beautiful patina suggests extensive handling and a late 1800s or early 1900s date of creation. Lanmon and Harlow's The Pottery of Acoma Pueblo notes that the fluted rim seen here "would usually signal a post-1900 date," so we arrive at that first decade of the twentieth century as the decade during which this was likely made. However, an additional published example with the fluted rim is dated to 1870, so the possibility remains that this is a nineteenth-century piece.

The double-lobed form with an indented waist has been created at multiple pueblos for many years. If this form has a specific utilitarian purpose, we are not aware of it. In our conversations with potters, we are often reminded that certain shapes, elements, and motifs have specific meanings or functions, and others appear purely for aesthetic purposes or for the artist's own satisfaction. We would suspect that this double-lobed style fits in the latter category, but we cannot say that with certainty.

As usual, these details will likely remain mysterious, but few will argue with the assertion that this is a beautiful jar. The form is excellent, and the designs are similarly strong. It is a four-color polychrome piece, mostly using traditional designs in black over the standard cream slip. A warm orange appears, circling the waist and rising into semicircular forms, within and outside of which additional lines in a rich red tone appear. The colors work together beautifully, and the designs are well-suited to the unique vessel form. This is a beautiful and unusual example of historic Acoma pottery.

Condition: excellent condition, one rim chip and one short vertical crack have been concealed by a professional restoration artist

Provenance: this Historic Acoma Pueblo Double-Lobed Pottery Jar is from a private Colorado collection

Reference: The Pottery of Acoma Pueblo by Dwight P. Lanmon and Francis H. Harlow, 2013. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe

TAGS: Southwest Indian Pottery, Acoma Pueblo, Historic Pottery