Adobe Gallery Blog

What is known today as a Storyteller figurine had its beginning in 1964 from the hands of Cochiti Pueblo potter Helen Cordero. Alexander Girard, the noted architect and folk art collector, saw a figurine by Cordero at a Santo Domingo feast day arts and crafts booth and requested that she make more and larger ones and bring them to him. He continued to encourage her to make larger ones with more children. When Cordero began thinking about his requests, she made a male storyteller with several children based on her remembering that her grandfather was a storyteller at the pueblo. Her creation, based on her grandfather, was the beginning of the storyteller figurine tradition at Cochiti Pueblo. In the almost five decades since her creation, the storyteller figurine tradition has blossomed.

Today, many potters at almost all the pueblos make figurines, some male and some female, but Cordero continued only making male storytellers because of the connection to her grandfather. She never made a female storyteller. Her female figurines are called other names, such as Singing Mother, Hopi Maiden or other names. Cordero used to say that the potters who made female figurines and called them storytellers didn't understand her intent.

This figurine is a testament to Cordero's talent. It is beautifully sculpted and painted. The single child sitting in the adult's lap has his hands crossed over his chest as he stares down at his dog who is sitting on the leg of the adult. The adult's shirt is beautifully designed and decorated. His hair hangs down in braids over his shoulders. He wears the old traditional white cotton pants and cow hide moccasins.

Condition: original condition
Provenance: Adobe Gallery sold this figurine to the current owners in 1999 and they have now brought it back to us to sell for them.
Recommended Reading: The Pueblo Storyteller: Development of a Figurative Ceramic Tradition by Barbara Babcock.

Title: Cochiti Pueblo Male Storyteller with a Child and Dog
Artist / Potter: Helen Cordero (1915 - 1994)
Category: Figurines
Origin: Cochiti Pueblo
Medium: clay, pigment
Size: 7-1/2" tall x 4-1/2" wide x 6-3/4" deep
Item # C3352A