Santa Clara Pueblo Matte Finish Wedding Vase by Minnie Vigil

This pottery wedding vase, made by artist Minnie Vigil of Santa Clara Pueblo, is slipped in a matte-finish beige clay.  A design element, enclosed in a circle, is repeated on front and back.  Within the circle is a pair of stepped elements enclosing rain clouds, below which is a row of triangular rain clouds.  A black line was used to outline the upper edge of the vase.  From it, rain clouds and drops of rain were painted on the edges of the spouts.  The artist emphasized rain in the design.  The vase is signed Minnie Santa Clara on the underside.

Minnie Vigil was born in 1931 and is one of a family of talented potters. She and her sisters, Lois Gutierrez de la Cruz, Thelma Talache, and Gloria (Goldenrod) Garcia, are potters of distinction. Minnie has won awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market for years in recognition of her fine workmanship. She specializes in Polychrome wares. Some of her pottery is slipped in red clay and stone polished and some is slipped in matte tan clay and not polished. This wedding vase is of the latter style.

In my early days of buying and selling pueblo pottery, Minnie Vigil was one of my steady suppliers.  I purchased many pieces from her in the 1960s.  After my return from Antarctica in 1963, I had an Air Force issued hooded parka for the South Pole weather.  When I returned to Albuquerque after that tour, I had no need for such a warm parka, so I traded it to Minnie for some of her pottery.  She acquired it for her son, who I recall must have been a teenager at the time.  I’m sure he enjoyed it.  I’m here recalling some memories of my earlier days as an Indian art dealer.

What is the purpose of the wedding vase?

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: this Santa Clara Pueblo Matte Finish Wedding Vase by Minnie Vigil is from the collection of a family from California

Recommended Reading: Pueblo Indian Pottery 750 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf

TAGS: Southwest Indian Pottery, Lois Gutierrez de la Cruz, Thelma Talache, Gloria Garcia, Santa Clara Pueblo, Contemporary Pottery, Minnie Vigil