San Ildefonso Black-on-red Pictorial Jar [SOLD]

Several potters at San Ildefonso Pueblo painted Black-on-red pottery in the very early 20^th century, but Tonita Roybal (1892-1945) and Crescencio Martinez (1879-1918) were an outstanding combination in doing so.  Tonita is acknowledged as one of the finest potters of the twentieth century. Had Maria Martinez not been accorded such fame, Roybal surely would have been. Her work was as fine as that of Maria. 

Crescencio was an astonishing painter but had a short life as he passed away in the flu epidemic in 1918.  He started painting on paper in 1916 when Dr. Edgar Lee Hewitt gave him paper and paints after seeing him paint on cardboard boxes.  This career lasted only two years before he passed away.  It is known that he painted pottery for several potters earlier in his career.

This jar is almost identical to one in the Smithsonian that is dated to circa 1905, a period when Crescencio was painting pottery and before he started painting on paper.  There is not a large amount of pottery by this team as Tonita is known to have painted a number of her own pottery and her husband also painted some, so very few are attributed to the hands of Crescencio.  Once Dr. Hewett gave Crescencio paper, he painted exclusively in that manner.  He almost completed a series of paintings for the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research depicting all the costumed dances of San Ildefonso’s summer and winter ceremonies.

In relation to a similar jar in the Smithsonian, which is described as one of only two known vessels painted by males of San Ildefonso, this jar is almost identical.  One of the two jars is attributed to Alfredo Montoya and the other to Crescencio Martinez.  Men primarily painted pottery for ceremonial or religious purposes, but occasionally did paint them for secular purposes.  The jar in the Smithsonian, similar to this jar, was collected  by Herbert Spinden for the Smithsonian between 1909 and 1913 and is not only the same vessel shape but has the same design concept—that of single male figures dominating the body of the jar.

To find pottery by Tonita and Crescencio is a treasured treat.  To find one that follows closely to a documented one in the Smithsonian is even more of a treat.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: from a gentleman in Albuquerque

Referenced Material:  “Acoma, San Ildefonso and Zuni Pottery at the National Museum of the American Indian” by Bruce Bernstein.  In American Indian Art Magazine, Volume 29, Number 4, Autumn 2004