Santa Ana Pueblo Dough Bowl, 1850-1900 [SOLD]

This Santa Ana dough bowl was originally in the Gallegos Collection which was sold in 1990 by Morning Star Gallery in Santa Fe.  The collection was first published in a book entitled Two Hundred Years of Historic Pueblo Pottery: The Gallegos Collection with text written by Francis H. Harlow.  The description by Harlow for this dough bowl is as follows:

“Despite the general decline in pottery quality at Santa Ana after about 1850 there were, nevertheless, a few vessels made that exhibit surviving skill in at least a few of the potters.  This bowl is a good example.

“The paste is a fairly light orange-tan in color with typical river-worn sand temper.  The underbody has been polished by stone stroking, and a red band applied to cover the edge of the light-tan slip in the design area.  The rim top is black pigmented, and most of the inner area is a polished-paste surface.  On the interior bottom, however, is a polished red circular area, which is a somewhat unusual aspect of the bowl’s decoration.  All four encircling framing lines have ceremonial breaks.

“The design band was painted with two separate figures.  Each has a pair of branches, one hugging the bottom framing lines and the other hugging the top ones.  Between the two branches there is a thin diagonal unpainted strip....visible on the far right of the photo.

“Unfortunately, our basis for dating Santa Ana pottery after the early 1800s is meager at best.  None of the great collectors for museums in the 1880s paid much attention to the vessels of Santa Ana.  The reason is likely that these pots were mostly rather crudely decorated, with results that are simply unattractive rather than primitively charming.” Harlow 1990

Pottery from Santa Ana Pueblo is quite rare.  Once Santa Ana Pueblo moved from its location near Zia Pueblo to farming land near Bernalillo, New Mexico, potters abandoned making pottery because commercial vessels were easily obtainable in Bernalillo.  When near Zia Pueblo, potters of Santa Ana used basalt as temper in their pottery, the same as used by Zia potters.  Once the pueblo relocated away from its Zia neighbor, the potters no longer had access to lava and chose to use river sand as a substitute.

The result of switching tempering agent by the potters was pottery of lesser quality than before.  Harlow does state, however, that this dough bowl is a good example of pottery from the last half of the 19^th century.  It is the exception from that period.

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: from The Gallegos Collection

Reference: Two Hundred Years of Historic Pueblo Pottery: The Gallegos Collection by Francis H. Harlow.  Published by Morning Star Gallery, Santa Fe, 1990