Santa Clara Pueblo Globular Black on Black Jar with Pyramidal Neck [SOLD]

The formation of this miniature seed jar was made to provide the maximum surface on which to display a design.  The large sloping upper half of the jar is filled with two design elements. Nearer the rim is a mixture of small curved elements.  Below that is a band encircling the jar, below which is an *Avanyu and rain clouds. The surface of the vessel was beautifully stone polished prior to adding on the design in matte black pigment.

Dolores Curran, originally from Santa Clara Pueblo, married and moved to Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo around 1977. She has specialized in miniature pottery since her first piece at age 9. She does not record her designs because she doesn’t want to start copying herself. She prefers to fit each design to the pot on which it goes.  The majority of the pieces she makes are buff on red, so black on black is much rarer.

Dolores’s sister is Geri Naranjo who also specializes in miniature pottery. We have shown some of Geri’s pottery as Related Items below.

Condition: this Santa Clara Pueblo Globular Black on Black Jar with Pyramidal Neck is in original condition

Provenance: from the collection of a client from Texas who purchased this directly from the artist in 1982.

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

*Avanyu:  a deity of the Tewa Pueblos—Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, and Tesuque—and is the guardian of water. He is represented as a horned or plumed serpent with curves suggestive of flowing water or the zig-zag of lightning. He appears on the walls of caves located high above canyon rivers in New Mexico and Arizona and may be related to the feathered serpent of Mesoamerica— Quetzalcoatl and related deities.