Zuni Traditional Decorated Pottery Storage Jar

This rare, traditional storage jar features native clay, traditionally coiled and hand-formed, in the pre-Hopi sojourn, thicker wall style. Its form and decoration take inspriation from recovered ancient Zuni (Shiwi) pottery and feature heartline deer, quail, tadpole and medallion decoration typical of pre-1900 Zuni pottery. It also features a broken border rim decoration in corn/clouds rain motif around the central decorative band. This wood-fired vase was created by famed potter, Alan Lasiloo in the late 1990s. The colors are traditional for Zuni Pottery and are made from locally-found slips. It is 6 3/4" high, 6 1/2" diameter. Note the slight spalted damage at the rim, which ocurred during firing.

Zuni Pueblo, lying about 60 miles South of Gallup, NM, is the location referred to in the eariest accounts of the Spanish conquest as the "seven golden cities of Cibolla". Its traditionally mudded studccoed stone walls do reflect the sun's light as they are full of straw! The date of Coronado's entry into Zuni is variously recorded as 1520 or 1540, while their own records go back some ten thousand years. The Zunis are linguistically isolated and their enduring, complex culture has given rise to many beautiful and complex art forms for which they are known world wide. Their pottery tradition takes cues from both the Acoma thin-walled style and the Hopi high shouldered style. The Zunis actually relocated at one time, fare from home, to Hopi to escape the predation of the arriving bands of Athabascan nomads, who later settled and became the Navajo and the Apache.

If you are looking for a nice example of authentic Zuni Pueblo handmade pottery, then go no further!

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