Laguna Pueblo Four Color Polychrome Small Jar [SOLD]

Refugees from Acoma, Zuni and other pueblos established Laguna Pueblo a few years after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Its date of establishment was 1699. As a result, its pottery can be very similar to that of Acoma and Zuni Pueblos, and, for the most part, is indistinguishable from ceramics at Acoma, but not so much from that at Zuni except for similarity in design elements. Acoma and Laguna clay are similar but Zuni clay differs from that at those two pueblos.  Sometimes designs must be used as a guideline for distinguishing ceramics at Laguna.

The domino shaped black bars on the neck with a white split in their centers are very typical of pottery designs used at Laguna.  Also, the plant with berries is a traditional design element from Laguna, a design that Laguna potters took with them when many of them moved to Isleta Pueblo.  It has since become an Isleta Pueblo design. It is such design elements as these that distinguish Laguna pottery from that of Acoma.

This jar has the typical water jar or olla shape but is smaller than the standard size, leading one to classify it as a child’s water jar.  The cream slip is crazing, an indication of an early 20th century creation.  Orange slip was used for most of the painted design, but a deep red color was used for the blossom of the plant, thereby making this a four-color polychrome jar.

The jar has a black rim and black framing lines at the rim, neither of which features ceremonial breaks, however, the wide orange band at the shoulder, outlined in black framing lines, does feature a ceremonial line break, as does the pair of framing lines at the base of the jar.  The base is concave in typical fashion. There is a very slight tilt to the jar.

There is an excellent article in American Indian Art Magazine, Vol. 32, #3, Summer 2007, by Dwight Lanmon, entitled "Identifying Laguna Pueblo Pottery, Circa 1900." Although it applies to circa 1900 pottery, and this jar is probably circa 1920s, the information in the article gives a good understanding of how difficult it is to distinguish between Acoma and Laguna pottery.

A second article of interest is entitled "On Distinguishing Laguna from Acoma Polychrome" and it was authored by Florence H. Ellis and published in El Palacio, Vol. 73, #3, Autumn 1966. It is worth reading because it makes distinguishing pottery from the two pueblos even more confusing.

There is no confusion on this child’s water jar.  It is easily identifiable as having been made at Laguna Pueblo.

Condition: this Laguna Pueblo Four Color Polychrome Small Jar is in very good condition with some minor paint abrasion

Provenance: from the estate of Santa Fe dealer and collector, Martha (Marti) Struever who passed away in August 2017.

Recommended Reading: Acoma & Laguna Pottery by Rick Dillingham