This is a near perfect feather design black-on-black jar created c. 1970 by Santana and Adam Martinez. Adam was Maria Martinez’ son and Santana was Adam’s wife. It is 7” tall by 8” diameter, large for this form and certainly on the large side for Santana and Adam. As the years went on, they tended to create smaller, less ambitious pottery. This shows 2 artists still at the height of their artistic power. The jar is perfectly symmetrical, the polish mirror like and consistent. The matte painted, unpolished feather design by Adam is perfectly and beautifully created. A poor firing job can dull out even such a beautiful creation, but not the case here as the rich polished black surface is consistent all-over the jar.
A gem!
Provenance: Another example from the collection of Rutt Bridges, a collector with an eye for quality and artistry