Polychrome Tesuque Dough Bowl, circa 1870s [SOLD]

This is a wonderful Tesuque Polychrome dough bowl exhibiting traits of late 19^th century Tesuque ceramics. The paste is very typical Tewa material, tan in color and fibrous in texture, with some crystalline sand grains as usual in Tesuque pottery.

The interior is unslipped and undecorated natural stone polished clay. The upper half of the exterior is slipped with cream-colored clay and then stone polished. Applied over the slip is a sinusoidal type design element completely encircling the bowl, above and below which are black pairs of framing lines. A red rim and a red band under the decorated area complete the painted decoration. The underbody is unslipped with the natural tan-colored clay exhibiting the bumpy polish that is a distinguishing trait at Tesuque. The bottom is concave.

Provenance: This Tesuque bowl was donated in 1927 to the Washington County Historical Society in Pennsylvania by a “prominent citizen.” I have the mate bowl made by the same potter and donated by the same family in 1948. Both were there together until they were deaccessioned in the fall of 2004. Both were from the 1870s. I hope the new owner will find this interesting.
—Source: Adobe Gallery Client