San Juan Pueblo Revival Micaceous Incised Pottery Jar [SOLD]

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Potter Once Known

This is a magnificent San Juan Pueblo Revival pottery jar made in the Potsuwi’i Incised style of the Tewa pueblo’s prehistoric pottery.  The jar was made from the traditional clay of the pueblo without additional slip or pigments added.  The design was scored into the clay body freehand with a sharp implement and micaceous clay painted into the incisions.  The incised area of the jar was left in a matte state and the neck and lower body were stone polished.  It was not signed with the name of the potter; however, it is obvious that she was a magnificent artist.

San Juan Pueblo potters produced pottery of the same type for a thousand years or more without any significant changes to the style.  This pottery consisted of polished red slip over a tan clay body. When fired in reduction firing, it would turn to black over grey. By the end of the nineteenth century, production had practically ceased with only a few vessels being made for local use by very few potters.

Witnessing the popularity of pottery from other Tewa-speaking pueblos, potters at San Juan (now Ohkay Owingeh) Pueblo undertook a revival of pottery to sell to tourists and collectors and share in the monetary rewards in evidence at their neighboring pueblos.

To accomplish this, Regina Cata, in 1930, organized a pottery study group to determine a means of reviving pottery production. Eight potters studied ancient potsherds of wares made in northern Rio Grande pueblos in earlier times and selected Potsuwi’i Incised Ware (1450-1500) as a basis for a contemporary pottery type.  This style was ancestral pottery of Tewa-speaking pueblos, of which San Juan belongs, so they were selecting a style ancestral to their village.  This new style was eagerly accepted by collectors and has remained the style representing the pueblo for the last 90 years.  The nineteenth century style of red-over-tan is still eagerly sought by collectors as representative of the pueblo’s pottery of the period.


Condition: original condition

Provenance: this San Juan Pueblo Revival Micaceous Incised Pottery Jar is from the collection of a gentleman from Arizona

Recommended Reading: PUEBLO POTTERY OF THE NEW MEXICO INDIANS Ever Constant, Ever Changing by Betty Toulouse

Relative Links: Southwest Indian PotterySan Juan PuebloRegina Cata

Close up view of a section of this jar.