Santa Clara Miniature Red Sgraffito-design Seed Jar [R]

Joseph Lonewolf started a career as a mechanic and then became a trained machinist, making precision parts with fine engraving.  It was this skill that he used to transfer his talent from mechanical objects to precision-carved pottery.  In 1971, Lonewolf returned to Santa Clara Pueblo and put his skills to making pottery as had been taught to him by his mother, Agapita Silva Tafoya.  His father, Camilio Tafoya, had taken him as a child into the mountains where he witnessed petroglyphs carved into caves and on walls of cliffs.  Lonewolf took the lessons of his mother and field trips with his father and combined the two to arrive at intricately-carved designs on pottery.

If any potter has mastered the technique of sgraffito pottery, it must be agreed that it is Joseph Lonewolf. He has created the finest designs in sgraffito ever put on the face of a pottery vessel.  The beautiful butterflies on the dome of this seed pot bear witness to his skills of carving and the layout is testament to his artistic talents.  Interestingly, he added an Avanyu water serpent on the side wall of the pot.

The pot is signed Joseph Lonewolf and has the wolf's head hallmark as well as the date that appears to be 1978, but possibly 1973.

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from a gentleman in Albuquerque

Recommended Reading: The Pottery Jewels of Joseph Lonewolf by The Dandick Company (a copy of the First Edition included with the purchase of the pot)