Acoma Pueblo Hawikuh Style Olla, circa 1920s [R]

The predecessor to Santa Fe Indian Market was The Southwest Indian Fair, the first one being held in 1922. It had the backing of Edgar Lee Hewett, director of the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research (SAR). Awards were offered at this first fair as a means of encouraging finer output by the potters. It did spur interest by the potters and the results were increased designs and better forms.

One of the results was an Acoma Black-on-red copy (IAF.1031) of a Hawikuh Glaze-on-red jar (circa 1670) that was in the Indian Arts Fund (now in the Indian Arts Research Center of the SAR) collection (IAF.996). The design style and vessel shape are basically the same for the two jars.

In consultation with Dwight Lanmon regarding the jar that we are illustrating, we were provided the following information:

"...it is likely by Dolores (Estevan) Ascencion (b. ca. 1861-?)

"Dolores Estevan Ascencion was married to Juan Estevan Ascencion; they had one daughter, Lita. A woman named Juana Dolores Estevan, who may have been the same person, was enumerated in the 1910 Federal census and identified as a pottery maker; she was the mother of Juana Maria Yousiewa, wife of Juan Estevan Yousiewa.

"The authors know of four examples of pottery identified as the work of Dolores Ascencion. One, a black-on-red jar was purchased by Kenneth M. Chapman at Acoma in 1928; his record indicates it was made by Dolores Ascension. This jar is in the SAR collection (IAF.1031). The same jar however, was identified as the work of Santana Sanchez by Marie Z. Chino in 1963. It is a copy of a Hawikuh glaze-on-red dating from about 1670 in the SAR collection (IAF.996), which Dr. Harry P. Mera purchased from Dolores Ascencion, also in 1928). Chapman may have commissioned the copy. A closely similar jar by Ascencion is in the MIAC collection (7757/12); it also has matte white pigment in the decoration

"Another vessel made by Dolores Ascencion, a food bowl, is decorated on the exterior—and extending across the bottom—with stair-step designs in brown and orange triangles and squares with crisscross lines (IAF.220). The fourth is an unusual canteen with red background, decorated with stylized black birds bearing raised white dots on their bodies and large white flowers (IAF.1428). It is closely related to a jar documented as the work of Mary Histia in the SAR collection (IAF.2104) which suggests a close connection between the two potters—but there is no documentation to prove it."

The above comments were provided by Dwight P. Lanmon, who, with Francis H. Harlow, are the authors of a comprehensive book on Acoma pottery published by the Museum of New Mexico Press in 2012.

The Acoma Black-on-red replicas of the Hawikuh Glaze-on-red jar in the SAR collection is published in Generations in Clay: Pottery of the American Southwest by Alfred E. Dittert, Jr. and Fred Plog. Northland Press, Flagstaff. 1980. The same jar is published in Acoma & Laguna Pottery by Rick Dillingham. SAR Press, Santa Fe. 1992. The Hawikuh Polychrome jar is published by Lanmon and Harlow in The Pottery of Zuni Pueblo (p. 98, fig, 5.10). Museum of New Mexico Press, 2008.

This Acoma jar is another one of the same style copy of the Hawikuh Glaze-on-red jar in the SAR collection. There were two vertical rim cracks that have been stabilized. One side of the jar has a significant fire cloud, a result of the firing technique. Based on the rarity of such a jar, the fire cloud is not a significant consideration, nor is the stabilization of the rim cracks. There is no evidence of any restoration. There appears to be a very small rim area that has been over-painted.

Recommended Reading: The Pottery of Acoma Pueblo by Harlow and Lanmon