This canteen by Carrie was fashioned to sit at a backward tilting angle to better display the design on the face, a design originated at Zuni Pueblo but adopted decades ago by Acoma potters.  The heartline deer is the focus of the design but the elaborate band surrounding the deer should not be overlooked as it was beautifully executed.

Read more about this canteen here..

There is an exception in the case of two Hopi potters of note-Nampeyo of Hano and her eldest daughter Annie Healing Nampeyo. Nampeyo became famous not only because she was an outstanding artisan, but because the Fred Harvey Company housed her and her family in the Hopi House at the Grand Canyon in the summers of the early 1900s, where she demonstrated pottery making and sold her wares. It is well known that Annie collaborated with her mom in the early part of the century. She also made pottery herself, although precious little recognition was given to her in those early days.

Read more about this canteen here..

This is a superlative painting of an Antelope Dancer by Julian Martinez, one of the premier pueblo painters of the early 20th century. This fantastic, evocative, and subtly beautiful image depicts an Antelope Dancer in profile, and is executed in gouache on paper. The figure was created in contour with pencil and then wonderfully realized in opaque pigment, with all the traditional accoutrements of the dancer. The prominent headdress frames the coal-black face of the dancer, with feathered embellishments falling to the rear, over the dancer's back and neck. An animal skin covers his body, the legs are covered in white cotton woven garters tied with red yarn, there are feathered dance wands that simulate the front legs of the antelope, and embellished moccasins complete the ensemble.

Read more about this painting here..

  Arthur Begay shared his time between being an electrician and an artist.  He was born in 1931 on the Navajo Reservation at Newcomb, New Mexico.  He attended Phoenix (AZ) High School and Famous Artist's School in Westport, Connecticut.  He lived for most of his life near Newcomb, New Mexico, not far from Two Grey Hills Trading Post. In the 1950s, he won a fellowship to study under the famous Saturday Evening Post illustrator, Norman Rockwell, and spent a year working in Rockwell's studio in Westport, CT.

Read more about this painting here..

This drummer was made by Mary and Leonard Trujillo, members of Helen Cordero's family.  Leonard was an adopted son of Helen and Fred Cordero and Mary is Leonard's wife.

Read more about this figurine here..

  Delores Juanico (1969 - ) creates miniature Acoma Pueblo pottery and applies designs from published historic pottery.  This jar has a design she chose from a published Acoma jar from circa 1850.

Read more about this Acoma pottery here..

  Seferina Ortiz made this storyteller figurine in 1972, just 8 years after the very first storyteller was made by Helen Cordero.  It was not until around 1970 that potters other than Cordero began making them, so Seferina goes down and one of the very first to make the figurines in the likeness of a storyteller.  She had made figurines before then, mostly animals, but she adapted well to the new creation of Helen Cordero.

Read more about this storyteller here..

In the late 1800s, Dr. Washington Matthews observed the Navajo and published information on the tribe, its ceremonies and crafts.  In 1909, Oscar H. Lipps published a book entitled The Navajos in which he quoted Dr. Matthews' description of the Navajo Fire Dance which he called The Fire Play.  In 1989, Avanyu Publishing re-published Lipps' book under the full title A Little History of the Navajos (see reference below).

In this paining, Beatien Yazz has presented us with one of the fire dancers in active participation of the event.  He is dressed only in a loin cloth and his body is covered in gray ash body paint.  He dances with a fire stick in one hand.

Read more about this Beatien Yazz painting here..

Reference: A Little History of The Navajos by Oscar H. Lipps, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1909.

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.

"A little-known San Ildefonso artist is Encarnación Peña. One of the early artists, he produced little through the years. Like so many others, he was greatly influenced by the more outstanding men of his village, particularly in delicacy of style in painting dancers." (Dunn, 1957)

Read more about this painting here..

This is the traditional San Juan style jar with a polished black upper body and polished gray underbody, a style which has been made for centuries. In these jars, the red slip is wiped over the upper two-thirds of the vessel body and the lower one-third left without slip.  Both upper and lower portions are then stone polished.  When reduction fired, the red changes to black and the tan underbody changes to gray.  The interior of the neck is matte finish.  It probably dates to circa 1900-1930 period.

Read more about this historic pottery here..

This seed jar is probably from the 1970s or earlier and is an excellent example of the fine work of Fannie Nampeyo.  It was beautifully formed, polished, and painted with precision.  The tip of the rim rolls out in the manner that Nampeyo frequently used.  The parallel black migration lines are remarkably straight and parallel.  The orange paint was applied in an even consistency of darkness and a beautiful blush was achieved during firing.  The low and wide globular vessel form is particularly striking. The widest part of the vessel is at mid-body.

Read more about this Hopi Pottery here..

Priscilla Namingha Nampeyo was a third generation descendant of Nampeyo of Hano. Her mother was Rachel Namingha Nampeyo and her grandmother was Annie Healing Nampeyo. She continued using the Sikyatki revival designs taught to her by Nampeyo. She was an outstanding potter and her designs were always beautifully executed.

Read more about this Hopi pottery here..

In the spring of 1972, T. C. Cannon and Fritz Scholder were being featured with a two-man exhibit of their paintings at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., when the owners of Aberbach Fine Arts of New York introduced themselves to T. C. and offered to purchase all his paintings in the exhibit.  They recognized the talent of this 24-year-old Native artist.  Aberbach became Cannon's major art dealer from that point, then, a few years later, became his exclusive dealer for the entire world.

This watercolor and pencil painting on paper presents "The Last Civil War Veteran" presumably on his death bed.  It is signed in lower right and dated 1973.  It is a typical painting by Cannon reflecting a true historic subject.  He painted with regard to authenticity in every subject he chose.

Read more about this painting here..

  Jaune Quick-To-See Smith is a contemporary Native American artist whose work is a visual commentary on the past and present conditions of Native people in American society. She uses a variety of media to present emotional images portraying the Indian experience; the consequences of negative stereotypes being juxtaposed against images of continuing strength and courage.

Read more about this lithograph here..

As collectors of historic Southwest Indian Pottery are well aware, dating pottery is not an exact science.  If one can date within a decade or two, that is considered acceptable.  One manner in which dating can be accomplished is by comparisons with collections in museums that have collection data.  The Stevensons collected several hundred Zia Pueblo specimens between 1881 and 1887 which now reside in the Smithsonian Institution.  The American Museum of Natural History in New York City has collections from Zia made by Winship, Pepper and Spinden between 1889 and 1911.  The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has several examples of Zia pottery that date before 1917.  The Denver Art Museum has some that were acquired as late as the 1930s.  There are numerous photographs of potters with examples of their wares.  From these and other sources, dating of pottery becomes a little more refined.

Read more about this historic Zia Pueblo Pottery here..

The Aguilar sisters were recognized as master potters long before they created the bold black and black and red designs we attribute to them today.  Their early works were traditional Santo Domingo Polychrome in design and layout but were among the finest being produced at the pueblo in the late 1800s and very early 1900s.  Their handling of the design style, their precision with paints, and the overall geometrics were unequalled. 

Both sisters excelled at building a jar to an elegant shape with the body being beautifully round and bulbous and rising to a long graceful neck.  The neck on this jar could be compared to the beautiful long, thin and graceful neck of a Victorian lady as presented in The New Yorker in the 1920s.

Read more about this Kewa pottery here.

When San Ildefonso Polychrome became a specified pottery type in the 1890s, it did so because red design paint was revived, a change from the previous designated Powhoge Polychrome.  This was a revival of a style from the 18th century.  At first it appears that black paint was fired on and red paint applied after firing.  Around 1910 or a little earlier, the red was also fired on.  In some cases, the red on these early ones was watery.

Read more about this San Ildefonso Pueblo Pottery here..

#adobegallery #SouthwestIndianPottery #SanIldefonsoPueblo #PuebloPottery #SantaFePottery #FinePuebloPottery #SantaFeNM

Martina Vigil (1856-1916) and Florentino Montoya (1858-1918) have been praised as among the finest artisans at San Ildefonso. Jonathan Batkin has illustrated a couple of their works in his book Pottery of the Pueblos of New Mexico 1700-1940, and he illustrated additional ones in a 1987 issue of American Indian Art Magazine article "Martina Vigil and Florentino Montoya: Master Potters of San Ildefonso and Cochiti Pueblos."

Read more about this San Ildefonso pottery here..

This small Southwest Indian Pottery jar from Cochiti Pueblo was made in the shape of a storage jar, not in the shape of a water jar so we have selected small storage jar as its description.  The shape is globular with a short neck that rolls outward slightly.  The main body of the vessel is covered in cream slip over which was painted a design in black.  The design is typical of Cochiti designs, each of which floats independently.  The larger design is a mixture of leaves, triangles, and clouds.  The small design is a multi-directional element of arrows.  Around the neck of the vessel is a continuous design chain of triangles, half circles and half-moon elements accented with X markings.  A Cochiti potter once told me that the X marks were called turkey tracks and signified ceremonial use.  There is no obvious indication that this jar has been used.

Read more about this Cochiti pottery here..

If it were my labor that had gone into making this extremely large Hopi Pueblo storage jar, I would have been devastated when I discovered it had exploded in the firing process.  From talking with a number of potters over the past decades, I have found that they do not stress out when this happens.  They have the attitude that it was not meant to be that the pot lived, and they accept that with understanding.  What a wonderful attitude by which to live and pursue one's career.

Read more about this Hopi Pottery here..