Featured Help w/ID Old Southwest Indian Pottery

hi everyone. i've had this little pot for some years now, and always wondered what it's history is. It's just under 4 1/2 inches in height and definitely low-fire pottery. i could probably crush it with my hands. there's a couple of cracks as well as what appear to be pencil markings. something was written on the bottom(again in pencil). i know there's some people here with expertise in these things. any help will be greatly appreciated...thanks

 

With the delicate, thin walls, white interior with red rim inside and on the base, and miniature olla shape it looks like the work of a potter from Acoma Pueblo, similar to this (larger) one -


https://www.bradfordsauction.com/auction-lot/1960s-acoma-pueblo-polychrome-pottery_EFF40CE843

 

Jim gets some nice NA stuff.

 

yup! that's definitely what it is. thank you. but mine looks older; both the art and the base which isn't perfectly flat, also the wear. i wonder if there's a way to date the piece.

 

@Taupou may be able to provide an estimate of age.

 

A nice jar. I love the shape.

My gut feeling is 1940's. The addition of "Acoma N.M." painted on the bottom, as on the one 2manybooks found, was, I think, a 1950's development.

The bottoms of these are sometimes concave, as these ollas were originally carried balanced on the head.

 

Would a piece a little under 4 1/2 inches be a tourist or utilitarian piece ?

 

Tourist, for certain.

 

Tourists started coming to the region in the 1880's, after the railroad came through, and the small sizes like this were made to be easily packed in your suitcase. I think this little pot could be as early as the turn of the century, as the shape and design closely follow the older traditions. Difficult to be certain pre-signature times, but probably somewhere between 1900 and the 1940s.