Twentieth Century Acoma Jar with Tularosa Design [SOLD]

Acoma Pueblo potters have claimed the inherited right to use designs of the earlier Puebloan groups that lived in the early Southwest. The designs of particular striking beauty are those appropriated by 20^th-century Acoma potters and referred to as Tularosa Black-on-white. The Tularosa vessels date from A.D.1100 to 1250.

Acoma potters have been particularly involved with the use of these designs since the late 19th century.

The Tularosa Basin is located in the area east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, mostly in Otero County. It lies between the Sacramento Mountains to the east and the San Andres and Oscura Mountains to the west. Notable features of the Tularosa Basin are White Sands National Monument, Trinity Site, and the Carrizozo lava flows.

This Acoma jar is an excellent example of the use of Tularosa patterning. The curvilinear scrolls that circumnavigate the body are flanked on the upper and lower extremities with triangular stepped black-on-white designs. Throughout the design are very fine hatching lines that fill the previously undecorated white areas. As was the Tularosa tradition, the design elements are close together, solids are heavy, and hatching lines are very fine.

This is one of the most attractive styles ever produced by the Acoma potters. As black and white photographs often are stronger in appeal than color photographs [e.g. Ansel Adams, Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952), or Frank Albert Rinehart (1861-1928)], so too are some of the black and white pottery that is often overlooked by collectors in preference to three- and four-color examples. This jar is an excellent example to illustrate this point. It is an excellent Acoma reincarnation of a prehistoric Tularosa design. Whoever the potter was, she was exceptional at painting and her vessel construction was excellent.  I believe the jar is circa 1940s.

Condition: very good condition with some very minimal spalling.

Recommended Reading: Acoma & Laguna Pottery by Rick Dillingham.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery.