Historic Acoma Pueblo OLLA with Tularosa Design [SALE PENDING - MG]

This is a stunning historic Acoma Pueblo water jar that showcases a masterful revival style, drawing directly from prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan aesthetics. The most striking element of the jar is its bold, high-contrast geometric layout, which replicates the Tularosa Black-on-white pottery style (circa 1150-1300 CE). Historic Acoma potters frequently looked to prehistoric shards found around the Pueblo for inspiration, revitalizing these ancient patterns with incredible precision.

The body features large, dynamic, interlocking scroll or spiral motifs. One arm of the spiral is solid black, while the opposing interlocking arm is filled with fine parallel hatching lines. The hatching lines are meticulously painted, a hallmark of both ancient Tularosa pottery and historic Acoma brushwork. This technique creates a beautiful balanced "positive/negative" visual rhythm. Framing the spirals are bold, stepped geometric bands (lightning or cloud terrace motifs) that lock the composition together and give the jar its powerful architectural presence.

The vessel exhibits the quintessential historic water jar shape, featuring a high, pronounced shoulder, a gently sloping upper body, and a short neck that tapers slightly inward toward the rim. The lower body tapers sharply down to a relatively small, rounded underbody. Historically, this shape allowed the jar to sit comfortably on a woven fiber ring when carried on the head, or to be nestled securely into the sandy floor of a Pueblo home.

The jar features a classic white mineral slip background, painted over with a dark manganese or wild spinach bee-weed black mineral pigment. True to traditional Acoma historic pottery conventions, the underbody below the design field is left unpainted, showing a rich, polished red-orange clay slip finish.

This jar stands as a spectacular bridge between antiquity and the historic ceramic traditions of the Southwest.

Condition: very good condition with minor abrasions

Provenance: this Historic Acoma Pueblo OLLA with Tularosa Design was originally from a client of Adobe Gallery in 2016 and sold to a client in California from whom we have it back to offer again.

Recommended Reading: Acoma & Laguna Pottery by Rick Dillingham

TAGS: Southwest Indian Pottery, Acoma Pueblo, Historic Pottery