San Ildefonso Black-on-red Jar by Dominguita Pino

This gorgeous San Ildefonso Pueblo Black-on-red pottery jar was made by Dominguita Pino Martinez around 1890-1900. Dominguita is known for having made magnificent Black-on-red pottery. She collaborated with several others to paint her pottery. Some of her collaborators were her son, Crescencio Martinez, her daughter Tonita Roybal, her husband Santiago Martinez, and son-in-law Alfredo Montoya.

There is a jar of identical shape and design layout in the book "Matte-Paint Pottery of the Tewa, Keres, and Zuni Pueblos" by Francis H. Harlow. On page 177, Plate 10, he states "This fine jar was made by Dominguita Pino of San Ildefonso. This example of San Ildefonso Black-on-red shows a return to something resembling Ogapoge Polychrome shapes. It appears that Powhoge Polychrome vessels were never made in this form, so the re-occurrence at San Ildefonso represents outside influence, perhaps from Santa Clara. . ."

The designs vary in intensity on the neck and on the mid-body. The neck design is a repetition of a single element of a graceful spiral that represents a bird or perhaps a cloud. It rests on the peak of a black triangle that may represent a mountain peak or perhaps a cloud. The neck design is enclosed with a pair of black framing lines just below the rim and a single black framing line below the design.

The mid-body design is prominent in its chain-like composition. Donut rings connect oval elements of black mesh-like form. It is bordered on the underside by a pair of black framing lines. The base of the jar is stone-polished natural tan clay. Inside the rim, which has a black band on the top, is a wiped-on red slip.

Jonathan Batkin, formerly the director of the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, authored an article in American Indian Art Magazine, in 1991, in which he discussed three great potters of San Ildefonso Pueblo, and Dominguita Pino was one of the three he chose. He stated that Dominguita and her husband, Santiago, along with their children, "made some of the most beautiful pottery of the early twentieth century. Like her contemporaries, Ba Tse and Martina Vigil, Dominguita made some extremely large vessels." Dominguita's children were Crescencio Martinez, Alfonsita Roybal, and Tonita Roybal. One of her grandsons was Alfonso Roybal (Awa Tsireh). Her granddaughter was Santana Martinez, wife of Adam Martinez.

Dominguita Pino Martinez (1860-1948) is generally recorded as Dominguita Pino, without her married name Martinez. We have chosen to use her full married name to distinguish her from a Zia Pueblo potter by the name of Dominguita Pino.

Condition: at approximately 140 years of existence, this jar has remained in excellent condition

Provenance: this San Ildefonso Black-on-red Jar by Dominguita Pino is from the collection of a client of Adobe Gallery

Reference: Harlow, Francis H. Matte-Paint Pottery of the Tewa, Keres and Zuni Pueblos, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, 1973

TAGS: San Ildefonso Pueblo, Historic Pottery, Alfonso Roybal (Awa Tsireh), Santiago Martinez, Jonathan Batkin, American Indian Art Magazine, Martina Vigil, Dominguita Pino (of Zia Pueblo), Dominguita Pino Martinez, San Ildefonso Potter