Polished Black Carved Jar with Cloud Design [SOLD]

Rose Gonzales was an accomplished potter who experimented for years with blackware, redware, black-on-black ware and carved ware. She became very proficient at all styles.  According to Russell Sanchez of San Ildefonso Pueblo, she frequently fired up to twenty pots in a single firing, a feat most potters will not try.  If one pot explodes during firing, it could damage all the pots surrounding it causing a great loss.  Rose was confident enough in her work not to worry about a pot exploding.  She would fire redware and blackware in the same firing.  She first removed the red pots from the fire then smothered the fire with pulverized manure and left the remaining pots in the firing for another hour or so to produce blackware.  Most potters fire redware and blackware in separate firings.

This small southwest Indian pottery jar is an excellent example of her carved blackware.  She carved the entire sloped section of the jar, from the mid-point upward, with design elements representing clouds and rain.  The jar has a beautiful black burnish.

Condition: very good condition with one abrasion at the rim.

Recommended Reading: Pueblo Indian Pottery 750 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery.

Provenance: from a family collection from California