Ohkay Owingeh Small Serving Bowl [SOLD]

Anyone who has visited a New Mexico Pueblo during a Feast Day ceremony and then shared a meal at a home of a resident of that pueblo will have seen bowls of this size on the dining table full of food—green chile stew, frijoles, red chile sauce, calabacitas or other wonderful dishes.  One tends to think small bowls such as this would have been made exclusively for sale to tourists of the early 20th century, but they were actually made for use at the pueblo and then became a saleable item. Now having stated the above, it must be said this bowl does not exhibit having been used as a food bowl.  Perhaps this specific historic pottery bowl was made and sold before being used.

Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, formerly known as San Juan Pueblo, has a significant history in relation to New Mexico.  In 1598 the new Spanish settlement near this pueblo was made the first capital of the New Mexico province of New Spain by Juan de Oñate. It is 25 miles north of Santa Fe, which replaced it as the capital when founded in 1608.

San Juan Pueblo was the northern terminus of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, an important historic trail from Mexico City used by settlers and traders from 1598 to 1884. San Juan Pueblo was also the home of Popé, the leader of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 against the Spanish.  In 2005, San Juan Pueblo went back to its pre-Spanish name Ohkay Owingeh.

Because San Juan Pueblo was only a few miles from the Spanish established town of Española, it has always had outside influence on the lifestyle of the pueblo people and ultimately on the production of pottery.  Española merchants stocked kitchen wares in their stores and it became a staple pueblo household item, replacing the necessity to make pottery for daily home use. As a result, pottery making almost died out at the pueblo in the late 1800s except for the few women who continued making it for their own use.  It was not until 1935 when a revival brought back pottery making at the pueblo, but the style was different from that which was traditional.

This bowl is of the pre-revival style that was traditional to the pueblo before the 1935 style change.  The bowl was stone-polished on the interior and exterior. Red slip was applied to the exterior of the rim.  The underbody of the vessel was then allowed to receive fire clouds during the firing process—the only decoration of such pottery.  This bowl is likely from the first quarter of the 20th century.

Condition: this Ohkay Owingeh Small Serving Bowl is in very good condition

Provenance: from an extensive pottery collection of a family from Colorado

Recommended Reading:  Pottery of the Pueblos of New Mexico 1700-1940 by Jonathan Batkin