Historic Polychrome Aguilar Pottery OLLA, circa 1910 [SOLD]

The Aguilar sisters, Asunción Aguilar Caté and Felipita Aguilar Garcia, produced exceptional Black-on-cream typology traditional pottery jars and sold them to tourists passing through the pueblo on The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway train that stopped at the pueblo daily. Around 1910, sales began to drop, and the sisters mentioned that to the trader at the Santo Domingo Trading Post. He suggested that they experiment with different ways of decorating their pottery. They accepted his advice and developed new styles of decorating: one was predominately red and black with white outlining; the other was predominately black with thin white outlining.

According to Kewa Pueblo potter Robert Tenorio, the sisters have been called the Aguilars for decades, but, in reality, they should be referred to as Caté, as that was their family name.  He said that the men, who were Aguilars, were the ones who went out from the pueblo to sell the pottery by the Caté sisters, therefore it was noted that it was purchased from the Aguilars, thus that name has endured.

Asunción Aguilar Caté seemed to prefer the style using black and red, such as this one. The contrast of these two strong colors, superimposed on the traditional Santo Domingo cream slip, produced a bold visual statement. The new creations apparently were not immediately popular. Within a few years, when the sisters ceased making pottery because of advanced age, they had created a new style that has never been seriously taken up by any other potters except on an occasional basis. Santana Melchor produced a few in the mid-1900s and Robert Tenorio produced some late in the 1900s.

In this jar, the artisan used a combination of the Black-on-cream style and the Black-and-red style she had developed. The combination of the two styles is rather unusual and enormously striking. She decorated the neck in a bold red and black design with thin cream outlining. She repeated this theme on the upper main body by overlaying it over a cream background field. The lower design area of the jar incorporated the more traditional Santo Domingo black and cream design. Below the design panel, the potter covered the jar in red slip as was traditional.

Condition: The jar is in extraordinary condition for its age. It is just an incredible work of art.

Provenance: this Historic Polychrome Aguilar Pottery OLLA, circa 1910 is from the collection of a family from Ohio to whom we sold this jar on 27 December 2008, and from whom we now have it back to sell again.

Recommended Reading: AGUILAR, Felipita and Asuncion, Santo Domingo Pueblo, circa 1910-1915. An exhibit catalog for an August 2003 exhibit at Adobe Gallery, Santa Fe. (Request a free copy from Adobe Gallery).

CLICK HERE to revisit our August 8, 2003 Spcial Exhibit: Aguilar: Felipita Aguilar Garcia + Asunción Aguilar Caté - Santo Domingo Pueblo, circa 1910-1915.  

Relative Links: Felipita Aguilar Garcia, Santo Domingo Pueblo (now Kewa Pueblo), pottery, Maria Martinez, Helen Cordero, Popovi Da, Tony Da, Monica Silva, Robert Tenorio, Asunción Aguilar Caté, Kewa Pueblo Pottery