This is an early Zia storage jar dating to 1890 or earlier. Simple in design with with capped and stepped feathers and plant forms that grow vertically and meander as if wind blown around the jar, this is a large utilitarian jar that has seen much use in a pueblo home. It has a wide and distinct red band at the top of the base which contributes to its 19th century attribution.
I acquired this jar in the mid-1990’s and it stood proudly in the entrance-way to our Tesuque, NM home before being sold to a close friend and client. Now I have reaquired it as some fine pots just have a way of coming home. It is warm and majestic and from its simplicity and sheer size and weight, a jar designed to stay home and not to be sold in the art market. You know, some jars aren’t that fancy; don’t have birds, 4-5 colors or especially fine lines and drawing; you just want to have them around. This is one of those jars and I’ll be sad, in a way, to see it leave home again, which it most assuredly will.
Condition is excellent for a piece of this age that has seen use, with some commonly occuring 6 inch vertical cracks which have been stabilized only.