Cochiti Pueblo Santa Claus Figurine with Two Boys [SOLD]

Louis Naranjo and his wife, Virginia, were true innovators of the figurative pottery tradition of Cochiti Pueblo. They crafted their figurines at the kitchen table in their comfortable adobe home at the pueblo. They worked almost every day crafting their art with great care, joking and exchanging the gossip of the day as they went along, accompanied by television, children and grandchildren. Their art provided a good life for them and it provided a legacy that will be with us for another century or more.

Louis and Virginia had a wonderful sense of humor. They fashioned figurines in clay of bikini clad men and women with cameras dangling from their necks, mermaids, men with baseball caps, Santa Claus, and many other characters. Also, they crafted angels, storytellers, padres, nacimientos and pueblo dancers.

This figurine of Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) holding two young boys on his lap is a creation from the fertile mind of Louis. I believe he was the first to make such a figure in this likeness.

Condition: The Cochiti Pueblo Santa Claus Figurine with Two Boys is in original, excellent condition.

Provenance: ex. coll. Florida pottery collectors

Recommended Reading:  There is an excellent article on Louis and Virginia Naranjo in Indians of New Mexico, edited by Richard C. Sandoval and Ree Sheck. Published by New Mexico Magazine, Santa Fe, 1990. ISBN 0-937206-16-4. It may be available from the publisher.