Historic Santo Domingo Aguilar Pottery Jar with Tewa Influence [SOLD]

This jar by Felipita Aguilar Garcia and Asunción Aguilar Caté is strikingly different in design than any others of theirs.  The neck design is a defining characteristic of their painting style, however, the large medallion on the body is not typical of either sister’s work.

It is intriguing to speculate that one of them saw a jar from San Ildefonso or Tesuque Pueblo with such a body design and decided to use it on their jar.  See examples below from Tewa jars and the similarity will be obvious. Yet, the neck designs are unmistakingly Aguilar in style. Placing three designs on the neck band and using double framing lines are their hallmarks.

The jar appears to date to the decade of the 1890s which would place it at the time when they were making black-on-cream jars and before their entry into the black and red jars of circa 1910 - 1914.  The underbody is typical of the period—stone polished with a wiped-on red band below the design. The base is concave.

Condition: this Historic Santo Domingo Aguilar Pottery Jar with Tewa Influence is in very good condition with normal wear patterns

Provenance: Deaccessioned by Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas which had acquired it before 1904.

Recommended Reading: Pueblo Pottery of the New Mexico Indians by Betty Toulouse, 1977.