Extremely Large Isleta Pueblo Jar by Stella Teller [SOLD]

Stella Teller: Master of Pottery and Tradition

This magnificent excessively large seed jar was made by Stella Teller of Isleta Pueblo in the late 1970s. It features Teller's traditional polished white slip on which she painted the designs. Around the opening in the top center, she painted a circle of tan pigment on which she superimposed a design of eagle feathers in darker brown pigment. Encircling the medallion of feathers, Teller wrapped a stylized image of a bird, defined by the curved beak. Surrounding the bird, she placed a gorgeous two-tone Avanyu.

Award-winning artist Stella Teller has enjoyed a long career of making pottery in her studio at Isleta Pueblo. She follows a family tradition of potters, as her great-grandmother Marcellina Jojola, her grandmother Emeklia Lente Carpio, and her mother Felicita Jojola were all pottery makers. Teller began working in clay at the age of eight, helping her mother slip and polish small pots.

Stella Teller (1929- ) rarely makes pottery jars and bowls but has a long career of making storyteller and nacimiento figurines and has consistently won prizes for them since she made her first one in 1978—the same year Adobe Gallery opened its doors in Albuquerque. Her pottery is distinguished from traditional Isleta Polychrome wares by its distinctive colors, which she says are from all natural sources.

Condition: this Extremely Large Isleta Pueblo Jar by Stella Teller is very good condition

Provenance: from the son of the original owner who purchased it from Stella Teller in the late 1970s

Recommended Reading: Southern Pueblo Pottery 2,000 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf

TAGS: figurines, Isleta Pueblo, pottery, Navajo, Apache, Hopi, Chris, Mona, Robin, Stella Teller