This superb 4 color Acoma jar with good size, great form, beautiful orange bird and pie crust rim was my choice for my spring 2011 full page ad in American Indian Art Magazine.  This jar is deeply satisfying.  It is thinly constructed and beautifully formed throughout, by a true pottery master, whose name remains hidden to us.  But we are grateful to her nonetheless.

The natural firing allows one of the parrot-like birds to emerge in full brilliant orange on one side.  The other birds show a hint of that brilliance to come as the orange emerges more and more on each of the 3 birds as the jar is rotated; creating drama and growing satisfaction. It’s an individual thing, but I love how the natural firing teases us and pleases us at the same time.  The other design features include an array of abstracted mountain, plants, and geometrics.  The artist thus skillfully created  off an amazing overall design with many elementswhich, in almost random fashion, wonderfully compliment the form of the jar and lead your eye both up and down and around.  The beautifully rich red and orange rainbows bind all of this together.  In fact, all of the designs are framed by rainbows, rendering the overall effect peaceful and intimate.  The patina is dark, rich and satisfying either from handling and use in the original pueblo artist’s home or from oving handling by owners over the past 120 or so years.  Umm, sorry; I love this jar!

The condition is excellent, especially for a jar of this age, with one fingernail sized repair to one of the flutes at the rim.

A very special example of the brilliance of 19th century Acoma pottery.