Doña Rosa Pottery - Signature?\Glaze

I have one other piece of Doña Rosa Pottery. It is highly glazed and pressed rather than carved. These two new pieces were part of a larger donation of black Mexican Oaxaca pottery, but all the other pieces were unsigned. The signature on the dish seems right, but on the three-legged bowl, the "a" of Doña signature is an uppercase not a lower case, as I've seen on others. The pieces have a low level of glaze too. Does anyone know about her work and whether these are real or fakes or from her workshop? Any help appreciated.

 

It's Doña, not Dona. In Spanish, ñ and n are separate letters. Doña is an honorific title, roughly the equivalent of "Lady" in English. Dona means "donut" in parts of Latin America.

Debora

 

Sorry. I don’t know how to add the correct character set. Thanks for pointing this out. I’ll figure it out.

 

Simple. Option + n.

Debora

 

No option key on my Dell windows laptop. It's supposed to be the Alt key but that doesn't work.

 

Ah. You can always Google for a how-to but... It is a foreign word and if you chose not to use the tilde, you're still correct. It does change the pronunciation, however. So when speaking one says "Doan-ya" rather than "Donna."

Debora

 

I googled it. And there were two solutions so far. I tried both. Ctrl sht and tilde and the letter and alt and the Letter. I’ll try again when I get back from the gym. I want to write correctly. Thank you

 

I too think God is in the details.

Debora

 

Fixed it. Downloaded a virtual Spanish keyboard. It was a great find, as I can also download a Chinese, Russian and other keyboards to recreate signatures and titles that I want translated. Thank you.

 

I'm impressed.

Debora

 

It's very exciting. You can select your virtual keyboard, by pushing the language button.

 

Can I have an address for that download? Sounds useful.

 

It's on my Windows laptop. I have windows 11 latest update:

1. Press the Start button (Windows button) on your keyboard
2. Click on Settings
3. Click on Time & Language
4. Click on Preferred Language
5. Click on the Add a Language Button
6. Select the language from the drop down menu
7. Download

After that is complete:

1. At the bottom right of your screen on the Taskbar, select your touch keyboard
2. At the bottom right of your touch keyboard, see the ENG button and click on it. It will give you options for the various language you have downloaded. Use this keyboard to type as your fixed one will not change its appearance.

If you need any help tell me.

 

I'm not sure what you are saying/asking here. Doña Rosa Pottery is never glazed, so the reference to one piece being "highly glazed and pressed rather than carved," and the others having a "low level of glaze," just doesn't make sense. The photos don't show glazed pottery. Am I missing something?

 

I don't have the right language for pottery sorry. I found this trinket box marked Doña Rosa some time ago. It is shiny and appears to me like the design was pressed in clay, but what do I know. What I am asking is whether the two new pieces, plate and bowl, are really Doña Rosa pieces.

 

That makes sense, now. Thank you for clarifying. In answer, I would say that, first, Doña Rosa is credited with developing the style of "barro negro" (black pottery), made locally in San Bartolo Coyotepec, into a type of pottery that attracted tourists. This happened in the 1950s.

The pottery is burnished (polished) rather than glazed, and she found that polishing it with a quartz stone, and then firing it at a lower temperature than usual, would make it blacker, and more shiny. It soon became a type of pottery that other potters copied, since it produced more sales than the former, less shiny, and more grey pots they had been making.

It's important to note, however, that since it isn't glazed or high-fired, it is not waterproof, (which may be one of the reasons some potters make the distinctive cut-out designs!) It is strictly decorative, not functional for use that requires exposure to moisture.

Doña Rosa passed away in 1980, but her daughter, grandchildren, and other family members continue to make the pottery in a workshop in the family home. So, much of it is still signed with the Doña Rosa signature, although made by family members.

But the term "Doña Rosa" pottery also has come to refer to the style itself, and since copyright laws are somewhat lax, other potters occasionally sign it as well, since doing so might result in better sales.

However, I am not that familiar with the signatures to be able to tell you, for sure, which, if any, of the pieces she actually made and signed.

 

Taupou. Thanks so much for your detailed and fascinating explanation of how this pottery was created by one woman's ingenuity. I had no idea of the process. I've seen new black Mexican pottery in shops as I traveled throughout the west and Mexico but had no understanding of its creation. I collect samples of people's work, as I happen upon them. I will try to find out how to tell her original signature. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.