Special Value Offer: San Ildefonso Tall Neck Maria Martinez Jar [R]

Special Value Offer: The consignor of the jar has requested that we reduce the price by 20% from the original price of $12,500 to a new price of $10,000.

Maria Martinez was a very talented potter.  She had the creativeness to devise numerous vessel shapes and each was visually superior to the shapes of others.  This tall-neck jar is a good example.  The lower body is large and visually provides a stable base to the tall slender tapering neck.  This style neck on a body of lesser volume would not be as pleasing—a fact Maria understood.

This jar is signed Marie, which would place its date in the 1920s and would indicate that it was decorated by Julian.  The neck design is a series of clouds and an Avanyu encircles the widest area of the body, designs that fit the shape of the vessel beautifully.

Condition: structurally in excellent condition.  There are some slip cracks but they appear only to be slip cracks and they do not penetrate the clay body. 

Provenance: from the collection of a Santa Fe family

Recommended Reading:  The Legacy of Maria Poveka Martinez by Richard Spivey