San Ildefonso Pueblo Black-on-black Pottery Jar by Rosalie and Joe Aguilar

This is an exceptional Black-on-black jar by Rosalie and Joe Aguilar of San Ildefonso Pueblo. It is beautifully rounded at the base and rises in a tall sloping angle. The stone polishing is excellent and the design, painted by Joe, was well executed. He chose to use the Mimbres eagle feather design often used by Julian Martinez, but he made exceptionally wide feathers. The jar is signed Rosalie + Joe on the underside.

Although they may have been prolific potters, they were producing at a time before pueblo pottery became a serious collectible and most likely most of the wares they sold before the 1940s have long ago been discarded and destroyed. Hopefully, a number of theirs are in museum collections. This is only the third one of their works we have had in the history of the gallery, so I surmise that there are not many available.

Rosalie Simbola Aguilar (1898-1947) was originally from Picuris Pueblo. In 1922, at the age of 24, she married Joe Aguilar (1898-1965) of San Ildefonso Pueblo and they settled there. The couple had eleven children over a period of twenty-four years, yet, Rosalie and Joe found time to produce beautiful pottery in the San Ildefonso style. Rosalie, in addition to producing Black-on-black pottery also made carved designs. She and Rose Gonzales were the only two potters at the pueblo to produce carved wares and both were transplants from other pueblos.

Joe had painted pottery for his mother, Suzanna Martinez Aguilar, and was an exceptional painter. Kenneth Chapman listed Joe among 15 artists at San Ildefonso who painted pottery before 1940. Joe's son, Alfred Aguilar, said that his dad formed pots as well as painted them. If so, he would have been among the earliest males to do so.

Condition: structurally in very good condition but does have some scratches on the polished surfaces

Provenance: this San Ildefonso Pueblo Black-on-black Pottery Jar by Rosalie and Joe Aguilar is from the collection of gallery clients from Albuquerque.

Recommended Reading: Pueblo Indian Pottery 750 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf

TAGS: Picuris Pueblo, José Angela Aguilar, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Jose Aguilar - Yellowbird, Southwest Indian Pottery, Rose Gonzales, American Indian Art Magazine, Suzanna Aguilar, Rosalie Simbola Aguilar