RARE Tesuque Pueblo Small Historic Pottery Jar with Red Rim [SOLD]

This small, or child size, historic vessel is a traditional Tewa jar shape—rounded body and incurving neck that rolls out at the rim.  The base is concave in traditional water jar fashion. The body, shoulder and neck designs follow the tradition at Tesuque Pueblo of using chain-like elements connected and encircling the vessel. The artist chose a strong bold design for the body and a simple serpentine line for the neck design.  Separating the two design areas are two framing lines, the lower one with falling rain.

The body design contains two elements—a zigzag bar composed of two black lines and rain drops.  There is no red pigment in the designs.  Interestingly, the zigzag bar on the body is remarkably similar to the design on a Tesuque dough bowl we recently posted.  It is shown as a related item below.

Below the design panel on the body is a traditional wide red band separating the designed portion with the unslipped lower body.  The beige bottom is the natural vessel clay source that has been stone polished. The deep red color of the rim is rich and vibrant.  Jonathan Batkin states that red rim slip was in almost universal use at Tesuque in 1870 but by the 1880s black paint was commonly substituted. The red band and the red rim were also stone polished.  There are no ceremonial line breaks in the framing lines. 

The jar dates to the 1880s and was a popular size for travelers to take home with them.  Jars of this scale were generally made to be sold to curio shops in Santa Fe and to tourists who wandered into the village looking for souvenirs.  Such magnificent souvenirs were eventually replaced with cheaper and smaller curio items such as rain gods. This early period of tourist visitors was the heyday of the finest pottery made for trade.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: this RARE Tesuque Pueblo Small Historic Pottery Jar with Red Rim is  from the collection of a gentleman from Kansas

Recommended Reading:  Batkin, Jonathan. Pottery of the Pueblos of New Mexico 1700 - 1940.

Relative Links: Southwest Indian Pottery, Historic Pottery, Tesuque Pueblo