Special Value Offer: San Ildefonso Pueblo Polychrome Dough Bowl [SOLD]

Special Value Offer: The consignor has authorized a 20% price reduction from the original price of $15,000 to a new price of $12,000.

San Ildefonso large dough bowls are among the scarcest of pueblo dough bowls. One rarely sees them. This one was coil formed from native clay and slipped with bentonite (Cochiti variety) slip that required only rag polishing as opposed to the pre-1900 San Ildefonso slip that required stone polishing.

The exterior design is divided into 7 panels; each design being comprised of red leaf-like elements outlined in black and additionally some fully black leaf-like elements.  There is no definitive element separating each design from its neighbor.   The whole design panel is within double framing lines at the top and bottom.

The use of bentonite slip, the red rim and the thin red line dividing the design from the un-slipped under-body all are clues to the age of the bowl, which is circa 1905-1910. 

Condition: structurally in excellent condition with a single crack that has been stabilized and over-painted.

Provenance: from a family in Colorado

Recommended Reading: Two Hundred Years of Historic Pueblo Pottery: The Gallegos Collection (click here to view book details), by Francis H. Harlow. Morning Star Gallery, Santa Fe. 1990.