Unusual Red Carved Bowl signed Serefina [SOLD]

Sara Fina Tafoya is best known for her magnificent black jars, many of which feature bear paws.  She is less well known for carved pottery.  According to family members, this jar was most likely made by Sara Fina but carved by another family member, probably by her son, Manuel.  Serefina Santa Clara is embedded into the clay (see image right).  Sara Fina did not sign pottery but other family members are known to have done so for her.  She was fluent in Tewa and Spanish, but did not speak or write English.

Sara Fina also did not carve pottery in the style of this one.  This jar was possibly made in the 1930s.  There is a similar carved red jar in Blair, figure 2.18 that is signed Sara Fina with the carving attributed to her son Manuel.  That jar is in the Wheelwright Museum collection. 

Condition: very good condition

Provenance:   

- Currently from the collection of a Corrales, New Mexico family

- Previously from the collection of Gilbert Maxwell for whom the Maxwell Museum in Albuquerque was named.

Reference: Blair, Mary Ellen and Laurence Blair: Margaret Tafoya—a Tewa Potter’s Heritage and Legacy, 1986