Small Black Jar with Handles and Nodules, circa 1900 [SOLD]

This jar was purchased from The Case Trading Post of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe by a client who was told it was made by Sara Fina Tafoya.  It certainly is similar to pottery with which we are familiar by Sara Fina, so we accept the Wheelwright’s statement as justification for attributing it to her.

One of the most famous nineteenth-century Santa Clara Pueblo potters was Sara Fina Tafoya, followed in time by her daughter Margaret Tafoya.  Sara Fina was an exceptional potter from about 1880 to 1950 and she made large magnificent pottery jars, some more than three feet tall. Because she lived and worked into the first half of the twentieth century, her name is familiar to collectors today and her pottery is generally recognizable.

It is difficult not to heap praise on Sara Fina.  She was probably the first of many potters from Santa Clara to be recognized for outstanding workmanship, yet there are no records indicating she was ever awarded ribbons for her work and, other than being included in Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery exhibit at the Maxwell Museum in Albuquerque, there is no record of her entering shows or exhibits.  It was typical of the older generation of potters to just make pottery and shy away from shows and exhibits.  They were not looking for praise and accolades from the public.

This jar has the shape of a standard chile serving bowl with the addition of a 1-½-inch rim affixed to the top of the bowl shape.  On the wide rim, the potter added dollops of clay as decorations and a pair of rounded handles. She polished the interior as well as the exterior.  The only thing missing is her signature, but we know that she did not sign her early works. This jar is of the style of those she made in the early twentieth century, perhaps 1900 to 1910.  

Condition: this Small Black Jar with Handles and Nodules is in very good condition

Provenance: from the collection of a family from New Jersey

Recommended Reading:  Born of Fire: The Pottery of Margaret Tafoya by Charles King.