Ten-Piece Pottery Multi-Color Nacimiento [SOLD]

Isleta Pueblo is thirteen miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is a Tiwa-speaking people.  Early Isleta pottery was undecorated but the potters started to decorate their pottery in the late 1800s after the arrival of a group of immigrants from Laguna Pueblo.  Today, several families are making pottery but the Teller family is distinctive because of its use of grey, buff and white slip.

Stella Teller began making pottery in the early 1960s and is well known for her use of the color grey and adding turquoise hieshe necklaces to the figures whether it be human or animal.  Stella also polishes the white slip on her animal figures.  Several members of her family make nacimientos but none are as collectable as those made by Stella which can command high prices. Stella also makes sets in polychrome, the colors being beige, yellow, brown and white.

This set consists of three wise men bearing gifts of Indian corn, a pair of moccasins, and a blanket; Joseph and Mary and the Christ Child; a donkey, sheep, white bear, and a bison. 

Condition: commissioned from Stella years ago but never unwrapped until now so it qualifies as new condition.

Provenance: from a collector from Twenty Nine Palms, California

Recommended Reading:  Nacimientos—Nativity Scenes by Southwest Indian Artisans by Guy and Doris Monthan