Santa Clara Blackware Storyteller with Three Children [SOLD]

In 1982, four years after opening Adobe Gallery in Old Town Albuquerque, I asked Maria I. Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo if she would make for me a black train set similar to the one made by Santana Tafoya Gutierrez in the 1920s for the Museum of New Mexico.  I showed her a picture of that 3-piece train and she made one for me that was similar.

In the next few years, I asked her to make a Noah's Ark, then a wagon like those that circus companies used to display lions during a parade, and other unusual items.  Interestingly, she would only make one of each item.  When I asked her to repeat an item, she refused.  Other potters soon started making the train sets, particularly Paul and Dorothy Gutierrez.  To see an image of the train set that is in the Museum of New Mexico, check pages 38-39 of the reference book above.

As we were starting to have annual Storyteller Figurine exhibits every Mother's Day weekend at the Albuquerque gallery, she began making storytellers, and then she made nacimientos for our annual Christmas exhibits.  She was a lovely person to work with.

This blackware storyteller figurine with three children was made sometime in the late 1980s and has been in the possession of the Santa Cruz, NM gentleman to whom she gave it.  It is in original excellent condition.