Stone Polished Red Melon-ribbed Wedding Vase [SOLD]

The wedding vase is used during the presentation of the future bride and groom to each other's families. This ceremony concludes with the bride and groom kneeling in the middle of the room with the boy’s relatives and the girl’s relatives praying all around them.  After the prayers, the godmother places the wedding vase in front of the bride and groom.  The bride then drinks out of one side of the wedding vase and the groom drinks from the other.  Then the vase is passed to all in the room—the men drinking from one side and the women from the other.  After the ritual of drinking the “holy water” and the prayers, the girl’s family feeds all the boy’s relatives and a date is set for the church wedding.  The wedding vase is now put aside until after the church wedding, when the wedding vase is again filled with any drink the family may choose. Then the family drinks in the traditional manner—women on one side, men on the other.  The wedding vase has now served its ceremonial function and is then given to the young couple as a good luck piece. Betty LeFree, 1975

If Helen Shupla left her mark, it was due to her masterful creation of jars with melon ribs. She developed a technique of pushing the melon ribs outward from the inside while she was building the jar with coils of clay. She produced jars in all black, all red, and all tan. The entire surface of the vessel was then stone polished. 

Helen used the melon jar style to fashion this wedding vessel.  It has a twisted bridge between the spouts, a symbolic display of two people joining together in matrimony.  Wedding vessels made by Helen Shupla are relatively rare, and those with melon ribs even more so.  This one is signed Helen Shupla Santa Clara Pueblo ’84.

Condition: Very good condition

Reference: Santa Clara Pottery Today by Betty LeFree

Provenance: from a gentleman from South Dakota