Taos Pueblo Micaceous Storage Jar [SOLD]

Taos Pueblo, along with Picuris, Sandia and Isleta Pueblos, is a Tiwa-speaking group.  Taos and Picuris potters produce micaceous pottery that is basically indistinguishable from each other.  The early collectors of pottery in the 1880s observed that very little pottery was being produced at Taos and that most of their utilitarian wares were imported from San Juan Pueblo.  There are some potters today who are making pottery at Taos Pueblo.

This large cooking jar has an incurving neck ending in a ridge at the point of flexure with the body of the vessel.  This is a typical neck seen on Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan) pottery.  It is quite likely that this is a San Juan micaceous jar imported at Taos in the early 20^th century and used as a cooking pot.

Condition: very good condition for a utilitarian vessel

Provenance: from the collection of a Santa Fe resident

Recommended Reading; Pottery of the Pueblos of New Mexico 1700-1940 by Jonathan Batkin