Isleta Pueblo Eleven Piece Beige Tone Nacimiento by Stella Teller [SOLD]

This nacimiento by Isleta Pueblo artist Stella Teller consists of twelve individual pieces.  There is the three-piece Holy Family—Jesús, Mary and Joseph.  Baby Jesús is wrapped in a blanket and snuggled in a cradle board.  He is wearing a turquoise coker. Mary is standing and wears a finely decorated dress, a turquoise necklace, and has her hair in braids. Joseph is standing, wrapped in a blanket which is secured by his hands, and he wears a turquoise choker and traditional moccasins.   

The Three Kings are dressed in traditional pueblo clothing. One has as a gift for the baby a bundle of wood wrapped in a blanket over his shoulder. Another king has a blanket over his shoulder to be presented as a gift to the baby.  The third king has a pair of pueblo moccasins for a gift.  

The animals include a polar bear;  a bison with two strings of turquoise suspended from one horn; a ram or mountain sheep; and two sheep both lying down.

Isleta Pueblo is thirteen miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is home to a *Tiwa-speaking people.  Early Isleta pottery was not decorated. It was a beautiful golden orange with a darker orange slip wiped on in a narrow band.   Isleta potters started to decorate their pottery in the late 1800s after the arrival of a group of immigrants from Laguna Pueblo, who had left their home pueblo after a major disagreement among the residents.  The new residents settled in a small village at the edge of Isleta and eventually became Isleta people. These newcomers brought with them their traditional Laguna style polychrome pottery. They instructed the potters of Isleta how to use their style and designs and, eventually, all Isleta pottery became similar to that from Laguna.

Today, several families are making pottery, but the Teller family is distinctive because of its use of grey, buff and white slips.  This style was developed by Stella Teller, the matriarch of the family. She had begun making pottery in the early 1960s and eventually became well known for her use of the pastel colors and sometimes adding turquoise hieshe necklaces to the figures whether it be human or animal.  Stella also polishes the white slip on some of her animal figures.

Condition: this Isleta Pueblo Eleven Piece Beige Tone Nacimiento by Stella Teller is an older one and in very good condition

Provenance: from the collection of the gentleman from North Carolina

Recommended Reading: Nacimientos - Nativity Scenes by Southwest Indian Artisans by Guy and Doris Monthan

*Tiwa: one of three Kiowa-Tanoan languages spoken by the Pueblo people of New Mexico. Though these languages are closely related, speakers of one cannot fully understand speakers of another.  Many Tiwa elders believe that their language is not intended to be written and must be preserved by oral traditions alone. Some Tiwa people disagree with this position and think that using Tiwa as a written language will help keep it alive for future generations.  The five Tewa-speaking pueblos are Isleta, Picuris, Sandia, Taos, Tigua (Ysleta del Sur Pueblo).

Relative Links: figurines, Isleta Pueblo, pottery, Navajo, Apache, Hopi, Chris, Mona, Robin, Stella Teller