Tesuque Pueblo Historic Polychrome Olla, circa 1870s [SOLD]

In August 2002, the gallery displayed a collection of pottery from Tesuque Pueblo, a collection that had been building over a four-year period.  It was a collection of 20 historic pottery bowls and jars dating from 1870 to 1920.  Very little pottery has been made at Tesuque since 1920 except for rain god figurines and poster-painted tourist items. Potters at Tesuque in the mid- to late-1800s produced some of the finest pottery of the day.  The jars and bowls were well formed and beautifully designed and decorated.

This historic pottery jar is one of the most spectacular to appear since our exhibit 12 years ago.  It is as perfect in scale, balance, construction and design as any jar ever to appear from Tesuque Pueblo.  The potter, who may also have been the painter, produced an elegant design unlike any documented design of which I am aware. 

The three-branch elements surrounding the neck alternate with up and down positions and each was put down with thick black paint.  Surrounding the shoulder is a one-inch wide band with cross hatching lines.  The band is framed with an upper and lower framing line.  From the lower framing line are appended black lines representing strong rains. 

In typical Tesuque Pueblo fashion, the main body was decorated with individual floating elements, of which there are four.  Each one has what may be a floral element sprouting petals and surrounded by triangles filled with parallel black lines, the horizontal ones framed in black triangular clouds.  The rim of the jar is red, a trait that went out of fashion around 1880.  A red band encircles the jar below the painted design.  By 1890, the fine pottery of Tesuque was replaced with small tourist pottery and never revived.

Tesuque jars of the caliber of this one are not often seen on the market.  Once in a collection, they rarely re-appear on the market.  This is an extraordinary example of the finest pottery from Tesuque Pueblo.

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: from the collection of a family from Denver, Colorado

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