Featured Tesuque Pueblo pottery

Is the stuff still 'relatively' cheap ? (prob dumb question)

 

Well, it depends on the item, of course! A nicely painted small pot in a thrift will sell for under $10.
That same pot at an estate sale might be $25.
But at an estate sale you might find a whole collection of larger pots for hundreds of $$$, but still a bargain.

 

We went to Santa Fe abt 30 yrs ago and didn't have enough time to really hit the Thrifts-mostly just galleries on the square & canyon road-$$$$!
Extraordinary stuff but no big Mimbrenos bowls for 20 bucks.
We were at Taos Pueblo for (if i recall) San Jeronimo Feast Day-a beautiful event.

 

@Taupou

 

It turns up in estate sales, but you have to know what you're doing. Most of what I find here is tourist souvenir stuff, but you never can tell.

 

Here is the census listing I found. Note the spelling. Maybe the same person based on age and DOB but shown as female...... or maybe twins?

Eusibia Padilla in the 1940 Census | Ancestry

 

That census record looks like a female for sure.

 

@verybrad
This could be your maker!

 

I believe that most (though not all) Pueblo potters were women.

 

Yes, traditionally, and I think that's still generally true today, though much less so.

 

Bumping this up. I am not finding anything else. Not finding much Tesuque pottery other than quite old or pretty new. Think this probably falls somewhere inbetween? Was there any tradition for black Tesuque pottery? I am finding very little.

 

The book "Southwestern Pottery A-Z" does note some blackware from Tesuque, including in those inter-years you mention, in particular by a woman named Catherine Vigil.

More broadly though, the book says that Tesuque Pueblo potters, partly because of their close physical proximity to Santa Fe, produced whatever tourists were interested in buying. By the 1930s and after, blackware from San Ildefonso and Santa Clara Pueblos was definitely popular, so it makes sense to me that this could come from there.

 

Sorry I couldn't reply sooner. We've had daily power outages, and only occasional cell phone service, which has seriously interfered with communication!

It's an unusual piece, both because it is blackware, and signed Tesuque. Tesuque Pueblo, although it was known as one of the best "painted pottery" producers in the 18th and 19th centuries, never was known for making decorated black pottery like this (a style associated with Maria and Julian Martinez at nearby San Ildefonso Pueblo, in the 20th century.) There were a handful of early Tesuque potters who made blackware, but not necessarily black-on-black decorated. Catherine Vigil was known for her polychrome pottery, but there is no record that she ever made black-on-black pottery.

The way this is signed, indicates it probably wasn't made before the l940s, and the style resembles more San Ildefonso than Santa Clara, so this was probably Eusebia Padilla's attempt to "revive" the reputation that Tesuque pottery had before the Tesuque Rain Gods took over, by making a serious traditional art piece.

Tesuque is very close to San Ildefonso, so perhaps she had a friend or relative there there who influenced her, or maybe even she made and fired it there (it's a rather specialized type of firing to turn it black, and not usually attempted by someone inexperienced in firing). But because she was Tesuque, and not San Ildefonso, she naturally signed it as "Tesuque."

There are a couple potters with the last name "Padilla" listed in Schaaf's "Pueblo Indian Pottery, 750 Artist Biographies," but no Eusebia. Names, alone, are often complicated though, since potters might use their husband's last name, while he may be from another tribe.

 

Happy that you were able to chime in. Great information as usual. Thanks much!