Laguna Pueblo Very Large Jar Attributed to Arroh-ah-och [SOLD]

This historic pottery jar was created by a talented Laguna Pueblo potter between 1895 and 1900. It is an outstanding example of historic Laguna Pueblo pottery, and most certainly a rare and unique piece. Our attribution to Laguna Pueblo rather than Acoma Pueblo is due to the color of the clay paste, the slip color below the lower framing line, and the primary design elements. The potter used strong, right-angled geometric patterns of a somewhat architectural nature, with curved lines appearing only briefly in the areas surrounding the primary design. An Acoma Pueblo pottery vessel would rely more on rounded and curved elements.

This jar's primary element, which repeats four times around the exterior, sets a diamond within a diamond. A stair-stepped pattern surrounds this form in a gorgeous maroon tone. White and then black follow, expanding the design further horizontally. A thin band of rectangular checkerboard blocks appears on the shoulder. Above it, a wider band appears, referencing the primary design band and treating the viewer to more of the rich maroon pigment. A thin band with a checkerboard pattern circles the jar just below its black rim.

Remarkably, the potter's choice to create a complex web of straight lines and right angles does not feel severe or rigid. Rather, it flows as freely and naturally as any fine Acoma Pueblo pottery vessel, despite sacrificing the loose fluidity of Acoma's linked, rounded patterns in favor of strong corners and bold geometric forms.

The water jar's form is similarly strong. It is well-balanced, with the slight variations that are typical of works from this period. The shoulder's sharp turn inward has a Zuni Pueblo pottery look and feel, as does the darkened base, but there is little else here to suggest anyone other than a Laguna Pueblo potter. Everything about this piece is big and bold, but that strength does not come at the expense of elegance or sophistication as it might with the work of a less experienced potter. This is a very rare, exceptional example of fine historic Laguna Pueblo pottery.

There is a jar published in Rick Dillingham's "Acoma & Laguna Pottery" on page 11, with a design of the style of this jar which he identifies as by a Laguna Pueblo potter, circa 1900. To quote him "An example of a distinctive group of Zuni influenced Laguna jars, this piece's typical Zuni design features include the brown base and interior rim, scroll motifs around the neck, and hatched and solid geometric motifs around the body."

To additionally quote Dillingham, "In the collections of the Museum of Man in San Diego, the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, and the National Museum of the American Indian (formerly the Heye Foundation in New York), among others, is a distinctive group of pots from Laguna that may have been created by one individual or a small group of potters. Dating roughly between 1890 and 1920, all the pots appear to be unused and may have been made for the market. Their forms are typically Acoma or Laguna, the materials and techniques are Laguna, but the design layouts are Zuni. Because there is no documentation on these pots, we may never know if they were made by migrants from Zuni using Laguna materials or by Laguna potters working in Zuni style. Their characteristic idiosyncrasies, however, identify them as a unique body of work that points tantalizingly to the efforts of an individual artisan.

"Unusual as this collection may be, even more unusual is the case in which we have access to biographical information on an individual historic potter. Ruth Bunzel recorded the work of one notable nineteenth-century Laguna potter:

‘At Laguna I saw a pot of typical Zuni feeling and treatment, which I first took to be a Zuni pot. My informant, however, assured me that it was an old Laguna piece. Later she remembered that it had been made by her uncle, one of the last men-women of Laguna, a famous potter, now dead, who had once visited Zuni and had been so much impressed by Zuni pottery that he introduced the deer and other typical designs into Laguna.' (Bunzel 1920:57)

Dillingham continues: "The piece in question may be a jar of exceptional size and beauty purchased in Paguate in 1928 by Kenneth Chapman of the Indian Arts Research Center. Chapman noted that the piece was ‘made as early as 1850 by Arroh-ah-och, a famous Laguna hermaphrodite,' but I feel that ca. 1900 would be more accurate. Arroh-ah-och is representative of a traditional, accepted gender-role reversal in Native American culture, known in the anthropological literature as berdace. Many of the amujerados, or men-women were potters at the historic pueblos. Whether or not all historic-era male potters were amujerados is unknown. Another scholar (Ed Dittert, a personal communication, 1989) has suggested that Arroh-ah-och originally had his home at Zuni, was trained in pottery making at Acoma, and eventually settled at Laguna. In any case, the exceptional artistry and distinctive treatment of design elements are unique to the work of this potter. His work demonstrates the importance of individual contributions and of inter-pueblo influences on the development of the pottery tradition, as well as an interest in experimentation and innovation that continues today. In the twentieth century, the importance of the individual artisan to the development of Acoma and Laguna pottery has been abundantly clear, and it is a central theme of the story that follows." [Dillingham, 1992:11-15]

Condition: very good condition with a very fine hairline crack from the neck that has been stabilized

Provenance: This Laguna Pueblo Very Large Jar Attributed to Arroh-ah-och is from the collection of a client of Adobe Gallery.

References:

- Dillingham, Rick. "Acoma & Laguna Pottery", School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, 1992

- Bunzel, Ruth. "The Pueblo Potter: A Study of Creative Imagination in Primitive Art". New York Columbia University Press, 1929'

TAGS: Southwest Indian Pottery, Laguna Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, Zuni Pueblo, Maria Martinez, Arroh-A-Och, Rick Dillingham