Historic Santo Domingo Pueblo Traditional Food Serving Bowl

This is a classic Santo Domingo Pueblo (Kewa) polychrome food serving bowl, dating to the late 19th or early 20th century (c. 1890s-1910s). It is decorated with a bold, negative-space black guaco (plant extract) vegetal paint design against a cream-to-tan rag-wiped slip background. The repeating large, ovoid/leaf-like unpainted zones framed by strong black geometric arches and vertical framing lines are characteristic of traditional Kewa graphic sensibilities. Also traditional is the continuous line break through the rim and design panel.

There is a solid black rim top band that wraps over to the exterior wall for a half inch. Below the design panel is an unpolished wide red slip band covering half of the undecorated lower wall. The bottom of the bowl is flat in traditional style. 

There is a warm, patinated cream-to-tan slip with evident signs of native use, grease absorption, and handling.  There is beautiful authentic patination across the slip, including minor surface scuffs and grease staining consistent with true ethnographic domestic use rather than tourist production.

Classic small food preparation/serving vessels designed for daily pueblo home utility, featuring strong graphic geometry and genuine ethnographic wear, retain strong collector interest, serving as classic examples of historic Santo Domingo Polychrome pottery traditions.

This bowl was found by Janet Johnson Baisley in the home of her mother in Del Norte, Colorado, in 1882. Mrs. Baisley could remember the family using this as a cookie bowl during the Civil War. "Senator Barry Goldwater said the Baisleys had the best plain Indian collection he had ever seen. It was highly publicized & received a great deal of attention in the press."

Condition: shows a small, stable chip at the rim edge along with typical minor paint loss/rubbing around the top edge from historic handling. A single hairline crack traverses the side wall.

Provenance: this Historic Santo Domingo Pueblo Traditional Food Serving Bowl is from the collection of a client from Oregon. 

Recommended Reading: A River Apart: The Pottery of Cochiti & Santo Domingo Pueblos by Valerie Verzuh, et al.

TAGS: Southwest Indian Pottery, Cochiti Pueblo, Historic Pottery, Acoma Pueblo, Zuni Pueblo, Zia Pueblo