Seated Male Storyteller by Helen Cordero with 6 Children [R]

What is known today as a Storyteller Figurine had its beginning in 1964 from the hands of Cochiti Pueblo potter Helen Cordero.  Alexander Girard, the noted architect and major folk art collector, saw a figurine by Helen at a Santo Domingo feast day arts and crafts booth and requested that she make more and larger ones and bring them to him.  At the time, these were simple human figurines. 

When Cordero began thinking about his requests, she made a male figurine and added a child in its lap.  He liked it and asked her to make more, make them larger, and add more children. Later, based on her remembering that her grandfather was a storyteller at the pueblo, she made larger figurines and added more children in remembrance of him.  Her creation, based on her grandfather, was the beginning of the storyteller figurine tradition at Cochiti Pueblo. 

In the five decades since Helen’s creation, the storyteller figurine tradition has blossomed.  Today, many potters at almost all the pueblos make figurines, some male and some female, but Helen continued only making male storytellers because of the connection to her grandfather.  She never made a female storyteller. Her female figurines are called Singing Mother, Hopi Maiden or other names. Cordero used to say that the potters who made female figurines and called them storytellers didn't understand her intent. 

This figurine is a testament to Helen Cordero's talent. It is beautifully sculpted and painted. It is an adult male in the process of storytelling with his arms outstretched.  There are four children sitting on his legs and two more on his back clutching his shirt.  The adult’s shirt is simply designed and minimally decorated.  His hair is cut short.  He wears the old traditional white cotton pants and cow hide moccasins.  Two of the children clutch each other on his right leg, two other sit independently on the left leg.  Each child is dressed as a boy.

Condition: original condition structurally with no repairs or restoration. 

Recommended Reading:  The Pueblo Storyteller: Development of a Figurative Ceramic Tradition by Barbara Babcock.

Provenance:  Sent to us by the son of the woman who purchased the figurine directly from Helen Cordero at the pueblo in the early 1970s