Felipita Aguilar Garcia, Santo Domingo Pueblo Potter

The Aguilar pottery was made starting around 1910 by Felipita Aguilar Garcia, her sister Asunción Aguilar Caté, and their sister-in-law Mrs. Ramos Aguilar, at the encouragement of Julius Seligman, proprietor of the Bernalillo (NM) Mercantile Co. who noticed that sales of Kewa Pueblo (Santo Domingo) pottery were declining and a new style might prove interesting. He was correct. Today, the Aguilar pieces are much sought by collectors. Felipita, defying the wishes of the  Kewa (Santo Domingo) officials, entered the Santa Fe Indian Market (then called the Indian Fair) in 1926 and garnered 2nd place with her entry.

The Aguilar sisters made traditional jars, ollas and dough bowls with several styles of ornamentation. The style for which they were best known used strong, geometric patterns painted in black over a cream slip. Alternatively, they sometimes used black and red over cream, with the painted patterns almost completely obscuring the cream background.

This style differed from the typical patterning of Kewa pottery where large areas were left unpainted and open. Because of this, the Aguilar sister's style has become termed "negative boldface" Aguilar pottery.

TAGS: Asunción Aguilar Caté, Kewa Pueblo (Santo Domingo), Historic Southwest Indian Pottery