Dolores Estevan Ascencion (b. ca. 1861-?)

Dolores Estevan Ascencion was married to Juan Estevan Ascencion; they had one daughter, Lita. A woman named Juana Dolores Estevan, who may have been the same person, was enumerated in the 1910 Federal census and identified as a pottery maker; she was the mother of Juana Maria Yousiewa, wife of Juan Estevan Yousiewa.

The authors know of four examples of pottery identified as the work of Dolores Ascencion. One, a black-on-red jar illustrated in Fig. 25.6 was purchased by Kenneth M. Chapman at Acoma in 1928; his record indicates it was made by Dolores Ascension. The same jar, however, was identified as the work of Santana Sanchez by Marie Z. Chino in 1963. It is a copy of a Hawikuh glaze-on-red dating from about 1670 in the SAR collection (IAF.996), which Dr. Harry P. Mera purchased from Dolores Ascencion, also in 1928 (Fig. 3.21). Chapman may have commissioned the copy.  A closely similar jar by Ascencion is in the MIAC collection.

Another vessel made by Dolores Ascencion, a food bowl, is decorated on the exterior—and extending across the bottom—with stair-step designs in brown and orange triangles and squares with crisscross lines (Fig. 25.7). The fourth is an unusual canteen with red background, decorated with stylized black birds bearing raised white dots on their bodies and large white flowers (Fig. 25.8). It is closely related to a jar documented as the work of Mary Histia (Fig. 25.36), which suggests a close connection between the two potters—but there is no documentation to prove it.

Source: The above comments were provided by Dwight P. Lanmon, who, with Francis H. Harlow, are the authors of a comprehensive book on Acoma pottery that will be published by the Museum of New Mexico Press in 2012. (The Figure numbers referred to in the quoted text are those in the new book).

** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at Marketing adobegallery.com.