An Acoma polychrome olla
The globular jar with straight raised neck, painted with large cruciform devices, accented by slash marks and central box medallions, blossoms and leaf forms shown below the rim.
height 8in, diameter 9 1/2in
height 8in, diameter 9 1/2in
Sold for
US$ 10,157
inc. premium
Footnotes
- Ex-Dewey Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
See Frank and Harlow, Color Plate XXIV, for A Polychrome Olla, Acoma Pueblo, circa 1880s, with orange pigments similar to the orange pigments featured in this olla. The Acoma olla illustrated in Frank and Harlow is in the Charles and Valerie Diker collection in New York, New York.
See Frank and Harlow, Color Plate XXV, for A Polychrome Olla, Laguna, circa 1800, with floral designs decorated with small black dots similar to the small black dots used to accentuate the floral motifs in this olla. The Laguna olla illustrated in Frank and Harlow is in the collection of the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe, New Mexico (#18704/12).
"Large crosses often appear as design elements in nineteenth century Navajo blankets and Apache baskets, but their appearance on the surface of an Acoma olla is unusual and adds to the rarity of this example." -J.S.
An Acoma origin for this jar is indicated by the light color of the clay body, as seen below the flaked-off areas in the four-fold split-leaf pattern at the left of the figure. Although the form of this jar suggests an earlier date, there are various design features that point towards manufacture in the latter half of the 1800s. One of these is the diagonally split rectangle, with four red ones and one black one arranged in the unusual form of a cross. Another is the multi-petal flower edged with tiny black dots. It is significant that the ends of the black-edged splits in the rectangles are not connected. The gaps in edging are likely related to the line gaps left intentionally in the encircling framing lines of many Pueblo Indian vessels. -F.H.H.
Category: Ethnographic Art / Native American
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