Santo Domingo Historic Black on Cream Aguilar Jar [SOLD]

This early twentieth century black-over-cream jar was made at Santo Domingo Pueblo in the first quarter of the twentieth century.  The amazing and progressive potter was Felipita Aguilar Garcia.  A little history lesson is in order to understand the development of this style of pottery.

When pottery sales dropped off at Santo Domingo Pueblo in 1900 or close to that date, two sisters, at the urging of the merchant who regularly purchased pottery from them, experimented with a new style of design.  Both potters were very experienced artisans who produced the highest quality work, so it was not their workmanship that caused sales to diminish, but it was the economy.  There was a recession in the early 1900s that matured by 1918, at the same time that the Spanish Flu arrived nationwide.

The potters were Felipita Aguilar Garcia (ca.1890-ca.1930) and Asunción Aguilar Caté (ca.1880-ca.1925).  To divert here for a moment, contemporary potter Robert Tenorio of Kewa Pueblo says that the sisters should be referred to as the Catė sisters, not the Aguilar sisters.   As far as I have determined, Felipita was married to Santiago Garcia, not to an Aguilar, so Aguilar appears to have been her unmarried name.  Asunción was married to Francisco Caté, so Caté was her married name, not her maiden name.  It appears that the sisters were from the Aguilar family, not a Caté family.  I will have to consult with Robert Tenorio when I next see him.

Following the advice of Mr. Seligman, the merchant to whom they sold their wares, the sisters began experimenting.  The results of their efforts were that one developed a strong black and red design with minimum cream slip visible, and the other sister developed a strong black design with a minimum of cream slip in evidence.   Asunción was the developer of the former style, and Felipita the latter.

Mr. Seligman stocked his shelves with their new works, but there is no indication that sales increased.  Their movement was strong but short-lived.  It may have ended around 1915, possibly because of their advancing age.  There is some disagreement as to the end of their careers, however.  An unpublished text by Francis Harlow and Dwight Lanmon includes a handful of pieces by the Aguilars, most of which are reported to date to 1910-1915.  Kenneth Chapman stated that two black-on-red jars are known to have been made by one potter as late as 1920.  Frederick Douglas stated that the two sisters passed away around 1915.  Jonathan Batkin stated that evidence suggests that Felipita continued her style as late as 1920 or 1930.  Based on these published comments, we can speculate that this new style of pottery began around 1905 and ended no later than the 1920s.

This pottery style developed by the two sisters continued in existence, being purchased by collectors over the decades.  From the 1920s to the year 2000, little information was available for the public at large to grasp the history of this new style.  Adobe Gallery developed an interest around 2000 and began investigating the history of the new pottery style.  In 2003, the gallery mounted an exhibit of 12 of the sister’s works and published an accompanying catalog.  This was the first display of their pottery to the public, and it was a revelation that catapulted their names and their wares to collectors nationwide.  Now, they knew who made those astonishing jars in their collection.  The gallery has continued to feature the pottery of the Aguilar sisters, with our latest exhibit having been in 2019, also with an accompanying catalog of the pottery.

We now occasionally convince a collector to part with one of these masterpieces and we proudly display the jewel again.  That is what we are now doing.  A client of ours who purchased this from us in 2004 is now downsizing his collection and surrendered this jar to us so that we could place it in the collection of another appreciative client.

Condition: very good condition, with some minor spalling and a few small areas of overpaint

Provenance: this Santo Domingo Historic Black on Cream Aguilar Jar is from the client to whom we sold this in 2004.

Relative Links: Asunción Aguilar Caté, Kewa Pueblo (Santo Domingo), Historic Southwest Indian Pottery, Felipita Aguilar Garcia, Santo Domingo Pueblo Potter

References: 

Anthony, Alexander E., Jr. Aguilar—Felipita and Asunción, Santo Domingo Pueblo circa 1910-1915. Catalog for the sale of an Aguilar pottery collection, August 15, 2003. Adobe Gallery, Santa Fe

Anthony, Alexander E., Jr. Aguilar—Felipita and Asunción, Santo Domingo Pueblo circa 1905-1914. Catalog for the sale of an Aguilar pottery collection, August 8, 2019. Adobe Gallery, Santa Fe 

Batkin, Jonathan. Pottery of the Pueblos of New Mexico 1700-1940. The Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1987

Chapman, Kenneth M. The Pottery of Santo Domingo Pueblo: A Detailed Study of its Decorations. Memoirs of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Volume I, Santa Fe, 1936.

Douglas, Frederick H. Santo Domingo Pottery of the “Aguilar” Type. Clearing House for Southwestern Museums, Denver Art Museum, Newsletter No. 37, June 1941.

Harlow, Francis H., and Dwight P. Lanmon. Unpublished manuscript. The Pottery of Santo Domingo and Cochiti Pueblos, 2006. Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe.

————— Modern Pueblo Pottery Types. Denver Art Museum Leaflets 53-54, February 1933.