Cochiti Pueblo Pottery Drummer Figurine by Helen Cordero [SOLD]

This Cochiti Pueblo drummer pottery figurine has all the charm of works by Helen Cordero.  The head full of black hair, the lines for eyes, the upturned nose and open mouth with discernable lips are all recognizable as the work of Helen Cordero.  The shirt is a shade lighter than normal red slip used at Cochiti by potters so it is probably a mixture of the red slip and cream Bentonite resulting in a salmon color, a perfect color to complement the design.

Helen Cordero is certainly accepted as the most innovative traditional potter at Cochiti Pueblo. We say that to allow inclusion of Virgil Ortiz who certainly was the innovator of non-traditional pottery.  From a complete failure at making traditional pottery vessels Cordero blossomed at making figurative pottery, particularly storyteller figurines.  It was not always so, however. She started making pottery of standard shapes and just could not succeed at arriving at the quality she desired. After accepting that she failed at that task, she was encouraged to make small animal figurines, which she did.  From animals, she progressed to human figures—the first being a female holding a child, which has been called a Singing Mother. 

When Alexander Girard, the well-known architect and folk art collector, met Cordero at a Santo Domingo Pueblo feast day, she was selling her figurines.  He bought one of the Singing Mothers and encouraged Helen to make more with more children on them and to bring them to him in Santa Fe and he would purchase them.  As she continued making these, she had a thought about making them in the likeness of her grandfather who had been a storyteller at the pueblo. It was then that she switched from making female figurines to making male figurines as storytellers.  That was the beginning of the famous Cochiti Storyteller Figurines.

Helen was married to Fred Cordero, a famous Cochiti drum maker.  It was this inspiration that guided Helen to make a drummer figurine, such as this one.  He sits with his legs parallel and a drum secured between them while his right arm is up in the air ready to come down on the drum.  As she did with her storyteller figurines, she made this drummer with his mouth open and eyes closed.

Throughout her career, Cordero made male storytellers, female singing mothers, Hopi maidens with traditional Hopi unmarried girl’s hair style, nacimientos and a figurine named mother turtle.  She never went back to try and make bowls and other vessels. She had found her talent in making figurative pottery and we, as collectors, are the richer for it.

This figure is signed as Helen Cordero Cochiti NMex.  The year 1982 has been added in ink below the signature.  

Condition: this Cochiti Pueblo Pottery Drummer Figurine by Helen Cordero is in  original condition

Provenance: from the collection of a senior citizen of Santa Fe who purchased it from Helen Cordero.

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

Relative Links: storyteller figurine, pottery, Cochiti Pueblo, Antonita "Toni" Suina, Buffy Cordero, Tim Cordero, Evon Trujillo, Helen Cordero