Tesuque Pueblo Polychrome Rain God Figurine [SOLD]

Tesuque Pueblo Rain God figurines have enchanted collectors for over a hundred years now.  Museum curators despised them in the 1880s and 1890s as abominations and a disgrace to the pueblo potters who were reduced to making such.  Collectors, however, loved them apparently.  Sales of them were a bonanza to Santa Fe merchants, such as Gold and Candelario.  In the late-1890s, Jake Gold partnered with J. S. Candelario to open a curio shop on East San Francisco Street in Santa Fe.

Jonathan Batkin, in the book The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico stated that the only way for Gold to have sufficient merchandise for his new curio store was for him to develop some type of artifact and have the Pueblo Indians provide it in quantity.  The most famous item of this category that Gold had a hand in was the development of the Tesuque Pueblo Rain God figurine, an item for which he was paying 5 cents each.

Gold both wholesaled and retailed rain god figurines.  On a typical year, he retailed over 100 of them from the store and shipped those 100 in a barrel to wholesale customers for $6.50 per barrel.  By 1907, he was shipping over 1000 rain gods annually.  The sales continued for years, although at a lesser quantity during the depression years.  Records indicate that Candelario shipped barrels of them to merchants in Colorado and New Mexico.

Thousands must have been made over the years by Tesuque potters, but only hundreds have survived.  Curio items of any sort eventually get broken or thrown away but fortunately some collectors treasure them enough to keep them safe.

This figurine is typical of the style made between 1900 and 1925.  The figurine was covered in cream slip over which the elaborate design was painted in black and red vegetal and mineral paints.  The figurine has sculpted hair painted black and holds a decorated jar on his lap.  The painted designs on the cheeks and painted eyebrows and eyes are typical of the early 1900s figurines.  This is one of the more elaborately painted rain gods which makes one suspect it is one of the earlier ones before demand increased so significantly that potters began producing faster and decorating less.

Condition: The toes on the right foot are broken off; otherwise it is in original condition.

Provenance: from a gentleman in Taos, NM whose grandfather owned a curio store near the plaza.

Reference and Recommended Reading: The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico by Jonathan Batkin