Tonita Roybal Black-on-black Rain Clouds Plate

Featuring a two-inch band of traditional rain cloud designs going around the circumference, this is a wonderful black-on-black plate made by Tonita Roybal of San Ildefonso Pueblo. There are four rain clouds, each connected to the other through the matted paint used for the design. The plate is almost 100 years old, being finished in 1931.

On the bottom the plate is signed Tonita and features a sticker which says "Tonita, April 1931".

San Ildefonso Pueblo artist Tonita Martinez Roybal (1892-1945), or Antonita, is acknowledged as one of the finest potters of the twentieth century. Had Maria Martinez not been accorded such fame, Roybal surely would have been. Her work was as fine as that of Maria. In Addition to making the pottery, Roybal also painted it, something most potters left for their husbands or other relatives to do for them. Maria Martinez is known to have praised the pottery of Tonita Roybal.

Dominguita Pino Martinez (1860-1948) and Santiago Martinez were the parents of Antonita, as she was known. She changed her name to Tonita Montoya when she married her first husband and Tonita Roybal when she married her second husband, following the death of her first. She would continue to be known as Tonita Roybal after this second marriage in 1916.

Tonita and Juan Cruz Roybal had four children: José Ramos Roybal, Marie Roybal, painter J.D. Roybal and potter Margaret Lou Roybal.

Santa Fe resident, dealer, and pottery collector especially favored the works of Tonita Roybal, and collected her pottery over the years. His collection was displayed and sold about a decade ago at Nedra Matteucci Galleries in Santa Fe.

Condition: fair condition with some scratches along the middle part of the plate

Provenance: this Tonita Roybal Black-on-black Rain Clouds Plate is from a private collection

Recommended Reading: Modern Pueblo Pottery- 1880-1960 by Francis Harlow

TAGS: J.D. Roybal, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Maria Martinez, pueblo pottery, Tonita Martinez Roybal - Antonita