The green turquoise cabs in this Sterling Silver and Double Turquoise Ring have an opalescence like opals.  It is as if one could see into the stone, past the face, into its depths.  The green stones are beautiful.  The silverwork surrounding the pair of turquoise cabs form semicircles on the edges and are then separated by silver dots.  Each turquoise cab is surrounded by silver twisted wire.

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These two paintings are being offered as a pair.  They are matted and framed in the same manner and appear to have been paired since they were painted, so it is appropriate to keep them together for the future. 

One of the paintings features three squirrels foraging around three cactus plants from which some of the fruit is scattered around the area.  In the background is a red-outlined butte, typical of the Navajo Reservation landscape.

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Lena Garcia (1924-?) was one of Eudora Montoya's students in the 1970s.  She continued making pottery until 1996.  Her niece, Diane Menchego, is currently an active potter, one of only two remaining.

This small, Rare Santa Ana Pueblo Polychrome Jar by Lena Garcia is one with the smoothest and finest surface finish of many examined from Santa Ana.  Because the potters use sand as temper mixed in the clay, the surface of pottery from Santa Ana is usually grainy, but Garcia seems to have overcome that flaw with her pottery.  The design incorporates traditional designs from Santa Ana historic pottery.

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This Santa Ana Pueblo bowl is a late 19th century piece. The bottom is flat and the rim has a slight inward flexure. The design is a continuous chain of alternating tilting left and right oval elements painted in red, outlined in black and painted on a white slip. A black line encircles the bowl at the bottom of the white slip and separates it from the red underbody slip that is stone polished. Beautiful fire clouds appear mostly on the red underbody, and occasionally on the sidewalls. 

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This collection of miniature baskets was assembled in the 1960s by a client from the Midwest.  The collection represents weavers from Tohono O'odham, Akimel O'odham and Pomo tribes.  The collection is being offered as a group for the stated price, which, it has been determined, is well below market value. 

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The Navajo Fire Dance is a public dance performed at the end of the nine-day Mountain Chant.  To start the dance, many young men drag great trees for a central fire, which rapidly turns into fierce flaring, crackling, and roaring heat. When it becomes its hottest, suddenly the loud burring call of the fire-dancers fills the air. 

Quincy Tahoma (1917-1956) Water Edge - Near Water has presented the Fire Dance in a most accurate manner as performed by the group of young men, always young men, because of the demanding energy required. To appreciate the intensity of the Fire Dance, we rely on a description by Dr. Washington Matthews who attended such a dance in the 19th century.

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Legoria Tafoya, Pablita Velarde, and Jane Baca were sisters.  Legoria was the oldest and Pablita the youngest.  Legoria devoted her career to making traditional black pottery in the Santa Clara Pueblo style, and so did her sister Jane Baca.  Pablita Velarde (Golden Dawn) is the one who chose to be an easel painter.  All three sisters were exhibited at Enchanted Mesa Gallery in Albuquerque, owned by Fred and Margarete Chase.

Each of this pair of black candlesticks starts with a triangular pedestal from which the stem twists upward to the top.  A handle in the shape of a dog or similar animal protrudes on one side.  The candlestick pair is probably a late creation by Legoria as they are spectacularly constructed and burnished with a beautiful black finish from firing.  They are not the work of a beginner but reflect the hands of an experienced potter.

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José Encarnacion Peña (1902-1979) Soqween - So Kwa A Weh (Frost on the Mountain) was among the many painters at San Ildefonso Pueblo working in the 1920s: namely, Tonita Peña, Richard Martínez, Luís Gonzales, Abel Sánchez, and Romando Vigil.

This painting by Peña depicts a Single Figure of a San Ildefonso Buffalo Hunter in Full Regalia-a participant in the Buffalo Dance. His color usage is subdued and the details are very soft.

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I am stating that this black horse single bookend was made by Maria I. Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo, even though it is not signed as such.  She is known to use the name Margarita Naranjo and this horse is signed this way.  I am also basing this on my experience with her and the special items she made for me years ago.  I showed her a photo of a three-piece pottery train that is in the Museum of New Mexico and asked her to make one for me, which she did.  When I asked if she would make another one, she refused, without comment.

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Dorothy Torivio was the most progressive artisan at Acoma Pueblo as early as the 1980s. She was born at Acoma Pueblo and is renowned for her innovative work in exaggerated seed-pot forms in large and miniature sizes. She painted her hand-coiled and outdoor-fired pots with black and white or polychrome patterns of staggering intricacy, painted fresh, and with beautiful precision.

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Nampeyo of Hano, in the late 1800s, secured clay from the area and made pottery on which she applied designs she witnessed from earlier Polacca Polychrome shards.  She used those prehistoric designs as inspiration for her new creations.

This jar is of a vessel shape closely allied with Nampeyo.  The rim of the jar rolls outward with just a slight curve, almost indistinguishable.  The design is unique.  It does not appear to be documented in any published collection so it is probably a design developed by Nampeyo from another design from which she improvised.

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The artist of this painting, Terri Kelly Moyers, and her husband John Moyers, are famous Southwest artists of landscapes and people. Both are multiple award winners. The young Hopi girl who modeled for this painting was the 1st Place winner in the Traditional Dress Contest at Santa Fe Indian Market in 1990, the year this painting was executed. The painting is in original excellent condition.

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Martina and Florentino would make the little San Ildefonso Pueblo the center of innovative ceramic art.  It would be several decades later before Maria and Julian enhanced that reputation.  Thanks to extensive research by Jonathan Batkin, the importance of Toña Peña and Martina and Florentino became public knowledge.  Their pottery ranks at the top of modern pueblo pottery.

In adopting Cochiti slip around 1910, Martina and Florentino experimented, settling on using a lighter application of the slip than their Keresan potters, who favored a thick application.  The result is a grayish undertone.  Florentino's designs often display a shift from red to black in alternating patterns on the same element.  The floral petals on the design of this bowl are a good example of such.  He alternated the exterior petals from solid black to a solid orange outlined in black.  The inner petals of the flowers alternate in the same manner.

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It is always difficult to make attributions to pottery because there is always the chance that there was another potter who produced similar work but is not currently known to us.  This pictorial tall cylindrical jar has been attributed to Annie Healing Nampeyo based on the shape of the beautiful curved outline of the bird design, which is like others by her, and the white outlining of design elements for which she was very well known.

Annie, and her mother, Nampeyo, both made red pottery, but Annie seems to have favored it more than did Nampeyo.  Annie also seems to have used white outlining and white pigment in the design more than did Nampeyo.  The elegant layout of the stylized bird design could only have been done by one of them and we have safely chosen Annie as the artist.

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The Sterling Silver Scallop Edge Bracelet with Turquoise is stamped AHolyen and Sterling.  It is a Navajo-style bracelet but there is no artisan by that name in our reference books.  It was beautifully fabricated with scallop edges and traditional stamped designs.  The single blue turquoise cab is a beautiful color devoid of matrix. 

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Pablita Velarde (1918-2006) Tse Tsan - Golden Dawn of Santa Clara Pueblo is best known for her earth paintings, where she used mineral and rock elements, which she would grind on a metate and mano until the result was a powdery substance from which she made her paints. This is an earth painting illustrating five Mimbres turtles swimming through some plant materials.  Pablita made a varied color and varied shape background to provide visual contrast to the painting.

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The image on this canvas is that of a Navajo *Yei.  The Yei are the Supernatural Beings of the Diné.  They may be presented in male or female form.  This mask is that of a male.  When this painting was executed in the mid-1990s, Tony Abeyta was strongly into and influenced by Navajo religion-painting Yei figures, sandpainting imagery, and other Diné religious subjects.

This painting is titled A Winter Silence and was completed in 1995.  It is a mixed media painting of oil paints and sand on canvas.  It is signed in lower left and dated in lower right.  The artist added the title, medium, date and his signature on the back of the canvas. At the time of this painting, Tony Abeyta lived in Taos, New Mexico, and added that information on the back of the canvas, too.

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The foundation of the bracelet is a silver bar with silver twisted wires on the outer edges.  The three silver foundation pieces are spread at the top and soldered together at the ends.  There are five beautiful blue Kingman turquoise cabs mounted on top, each in a silver bezel surrounded by fine silver twisted wire. 

The twisted wires add a touch of Victorian antiquity to the appearance; however, the Silver Twisted Wire and Kingman Turquoise Bracelet is relatively new.  It is stamped with the initials JL but we do not know the artist associated with those initials.

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A Tewa Indian from a neighboring pueblo to Ohkay Owingeh told us that the old San Juan Pueblo celebrates so few Katsina dances that very little is known anymore about their katsinas and clowns.  He thought this might be a representation of a clan from the pueblo, particularly of the Summer People's pumpkin group.  In the Northern New Mexico Pueblos, the society is made up of two moieties-the Winter People and the Summer People.  Each moiety is headed by a chief.  The Summer Chief is the authority from February to September and the Winter Chief is in charge the remainder of the year. 

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This buckle is stamped on the back with the name Lomawywesa, the Hopi name of Michael Kabotie. It is a buckle of excellent craftsmanship.  The design is quite complicated and interesting, almost a representation of stylized birds from prehistoric Hopi pottery.   

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