Rare Santa Ana Pueblo Polychrome Jar [SOLD]

Santa Ana Pueblo, being located close to Bernalillo, New Mexico, found that the pueblo was off the popular tourist track so there was little incentive to make pottery to sell.  Potters at Santa Ana Pueblo apparently did not significantly benefit from the influx of tourists with the arrival of train transportation to New Mexico in 1880.  Their village was quite removed from the train station and too far north of Albuquerque. It was not until the World War II era that a few potters from there started selling pottery at Coronado State Monument near Albuquerque.  Even this did not last long.  By the mid-1970s, there was only one active potter at Santa Ana and she was Eudora Montoya.

Eudora Montoya singly revived pottery production at Santa Ana Pueblo in the 1970s by teaching classes to a group of 18 women.  This revival spurred interest in Santa Ana contemporary pottery, however, that did not last long because most of the new potters did not continue production.  Once again, pottery from Santa Ana faded into history.

Lena Garcia (1924-?) was one of Eudora Montoya’s students in the 1970s.  She continued making pottery until 1996.  Her niece, Diane Menchego, is currently an active potter, one of only two remaining.

This small, Rare Santa Ana Pueblo Polychrome Jar by Lena Garcia is one with the smoothest and finest surface finish of many examined from Santa Ana.  Because the potters use sand as temper mixed in the clay, the surface of pottery from Santa Ana is usually grainy, but Garcia seems to have overcome that flaw with her pottery.  The design incorporates traditional designs from Santa Ana historic pottery.

We have had no previous experience with pottery made by Lena Garcia so it was a pleasure to have had the opportunity to acquire this one.

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: from a family collection from Albuquerque

Recommended Reading: The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo, by Harlow, Anderson and Lanmon