ipl Pueblo Pottery Gallery

Acoma Pueblo

Descriptions by Larry Frank

Prior to 1700 Acoma Pueblo was noted for its magnificent glazed ware with convex jar bases. After the Pueblo Indian revolt of 1680, this pueblo turned from the creation of magnificent glaze wares to matte-paint wares, and the concave base became a standard feature for Acoma water jars. It should be noted that Acoma potters have traditionally tempered their clay with finely crushed sherds of pottery, so that nearly every broken vessel is saved for re-use in this manner. This is a distinctive feature of Acoma, Laguna, and Zuni pottery, affording a strong contrast with wares from the other pueblos. The vessels made today by Acoma potters may well contain fragments of Prehistoric glaze ware, some of the occurring for perhaps the second for third time in an Acoma vessel.

Laguna Pueblo

Laguna, founded about 1700, followed so closely the Acoma pottery tradition that vessels made prior to about 1830 are difficult ascribe to the correct village…Acomita Polychrome is a type common to both pueblos. Laguna Polychrome (1830-1930) retains more of the Acomita Polychrome traits than do the contemporary jars from Acoma.

Zuni Pueblo

The early history of Zuni pottery is somewhat like that of Acoma and Laguna. All three villages traditionally use crushed pot sherds to temper the clay…in the beginning of the eighteenth century, Zuni Pueblo switched to mineral matte paint for decoration. The new matte-paint style is known as Ashiwi Polychrome (1700-1760)…at Zuni Pueblo there was a rare style of pottery, Zuni White-on-red, that perhaps survived as a holdover from Prehistoric days, in which the entire surface of the vessel was slipped a reddish color and decorated with motifs in white paint. Surviving examples seems to extend from about 1800 to perhaps as late as 1900.

Hopi Area (Arizona)

In a remote section of northeastern Arizona, far removed from the rest of the Pueblo world, there are seven ancient villages and several modern ones occupied by the Hopi Indian and by Pueblo immigrants from the Rio Grands area. For over six hundred years Hopi pottery has been distinguished by its beautiful shades of yellow mottled with orange and by the fact that on most types the motifs are painted directly on the polished past rather than on a slip. Another important feature is that unlike the other Pueblo Indians the Hopi almost never made vessels with concave bases, their vessels usually having flat or convex bases.