Zia Pueblo Historic Jar with Double Rainbows [SOLD]

An attribution is a personal impression based on one’s knowledge and published data and cannot ever be absolute, however, there are published examples of pottery vessels with designs that may be compared with other jars, which will assist in making an attribution that is based on something other than guesses.  This jar is being assigned to the hands of Trinidad Gachupin Medina (1883-1969), based on designs on published vessels identified as her work.

This superb polychrome jar, created most probably in the first quarter of the 20th century, features orange birds, outlined in black, with a white arch on the body.  Trinidad Medina placed a similar black arch on a jar presently in the Museum of Indian Art and Culture [MIAC in Santa Fe]. Harlow & Lanmon,2003, p.287.

The black birds on this jar have lacy feathers like a jar, also in MIAC, that is credited to Medina.   Medina regularly used double rainbows on jars large enough to carry such a design.  The bird’s eye in the lower corners of the panel with the black birds is identical to examples by Medina. ibid

This fine vessel was coil-formed in native clay with the addition of traditional Zia paste temper, crushed basaltic lava. The concave base and underbody are stone-polished bare paste with a red band at the top of the underbody, with the neck interior red slipped with a black rim. The designs employed by the potter contain traditional Zia elements supplemented with her individual creations.

The stepped designs above the polychrome bird, the bat wing designs that share space with the orange bird and the tracks around the rim, all contribute to setting this jar aside as being recognizably Zia in origin, but different enough not to fall into the category of ordinary Zia pottery. It is a piece that is far from ordinary and is a very special jar.

Condition: There is one dime-size spot in the cream slip near the tail of the black bird that appears to have had some restoration. It looks like that area received a blow and perhaps a small piece of the clay popped out. The restoration of this spot appears to be the only repair to the vessel. There is slight abrasion to the slip, but nothing significant, and a very small rim chip confined to the interior rim of the vessel. The jar appears to have been used as a water jar before appearing on the commercial market.

Provenance: this Zia Pueblo Historic Jar with Double Rainbows is from the collection of a gentleman from Massachusetts, who provided us with the following: “My aunt Bernice M. King received her Master's degree in music and anthropology at UNM in the late '30s. She created the first written notations for NM Pueblo music and choreography as her Master's thesis, and was well known by many pueblo "notables." Afterward, she worked at the Minneapolis Museum of Art in the '40s and was recruited by Dr. Inverarity as his co-director of the Museum of International Folk Art, and was a confidant of Mrs. Bartlett. While living in Santa Fe, she rented quarters in the small Canyon Road compound owned by a Mrs. Cassidy, whom I am reasonably sure was the widow of the artist Gerald Cassidy. I grew up in Belen, and as a youngster (aged 8-10) I spent several summers in Santa Fe staying with my aunt and accompanied her on many of her visits to the pueblos and assisted her with tape recordings while she drew the dances. To the best of my knowledge, she was the only outsider with the approval of elders to record, photograph or document ceremonials. I don't specifically recall the purchase of any pottery, but do know that she would almost certainly have purchased them directly from the potters.”

Reference:  The Pottery of Zia Pueblo by Francis H. Harlow & Dwight P. Lanmon