Small Black Santa Clara Olla with Bear Paw Design [SOLD]

There obviously were potters at Santa Clara Pueblo in the late 1800s and early 1900s who made wonderful vessels but the one best known is Sara Fina Tafoya.  A potter named Apolonia was potting around 1920, also Lufina Baca, Pablita Chavarria, Candelaria Gutierrez, Pasquelita Baca, Felomena Cajete and many others, about whom we never see documented works but we know they were potters.  These are just a few of the many un-memorialized potters from there.

The temptation is to assign all black jars with bear paw designs to the hands of Sara Fina Tafoya, and maybe she did make most of them, but other potters probably also made them.  We are not attributing this historic pottery jar to Sara Fina but it certainly could be one of hers.  The surface finish, high shoulder, rolled out neck with bear paws and overall symmetry are hallmarks of her work.

The southwest Indian pottery jar shows evidence of use.  There are water marks on the interior and some abrasion of the exterior surface of the type seen when water has spilled over the surface, leaving the polished surface like a well-worn pebble.  The jar is short and squat with an upright neck, a shape with a low center of gravity that is well suited for holding water.

Modern polished black jars of today are not suitable for holding water but the earlier ones were just as useable for water jars as the painted jars of the other pueblos.  This jar is no exception.  It could have been used in a pueblo kitchen for years or decades and now it is on the market to be appreciated by a collector as an object of art.

Condition: very good well-used condition

Recommended Reading:  Pueblo Indian Pottery 750 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Provenance: from the collection of a gentleman from Colorado