Posted 10 years ago
shareurpas…
(318 items)
I picked this up a couple days ago at a local thrift and felt lucky to find it. It is signed on the bottom, I can feel it but I can't read it.
The 'Black on Black' pottery was created in about 1930 by Maria and Julian Martinez of the San Ildefonso Pueblo Indians. There is a lot of history behind this type of pottery and it's highly collectable as well.
In doing some research on it, I haven't seen any blackware canoes and it could have actually been made from a different tribe altogether, but within the Pueblo Indian community. I just don't know but I like it.
Enjoy.
Thanks for the love Miss V~
Hi Sue!! Nice that this canoe brought you back :))
Lovely sometimes that's all something is lovely but I was told I had to make a longer comment. I have put & have seen just one word before this is a bit over the top
This is probably from Santa Clara Pueblo, rather than San Ildefonso, based on a number of these I've had over the years. Both made black-on-black pottery.
Since there's little water, and no tradition of canoes in the area, a black pottery canoe for a tourist souvenir does seem a little odd, and may explain why there weren't a lot of these made.
If it's signed, it probably does date to around the 1970s.
Ooh hello shareurpassion, how interesting. I had a ceramic canoe very like this, but it fell and broke before I could post it :( thanks for the post:)
Thanks all for your comments, all great and appreciated. I have really missed everyone here...Great to be back!
Hey val, maybe this one IS yours! HAHAHA...
Thank you Karen, good to see you again too ;)
You are too funny Zowie...I remember having to leave longer comments too. I just put a bunch of spaces before the words...that works too.
Hi Canyon Road. I thought Santa Clara Pueblo too at first, I'm not sure which one or where it came from, with the lines on the design it really could be either, don't you think?
And you have a very good point about the water! NONE, haha... Thanks for your comment!
Hi Vintage Fran...I'll share mine with you ;)
Thanks for all the loves...
Elisabethan
ho2cultcha
Rick55
Trey
Ted_Straub
aghcollect
mikelv85
Lol, thanks SP :) its a shame, it broke in half :( But that did allow me to see it was made of a red clay with a dark brown, almost black glaze :)
Just a comment on how these are made. Santa Clara and San Ildefonso traditional pottery is made from local clay (usually found right on pueblo lands) and fired traditionally...outside in a fire, not in a kiln. It is never glazed. The shiny surface is achieved by polishing the clay (before it is fired) with a smooth stone.
Before it is fired, the pot is red clay. Depending on how it is fired, however, the finished pottery comes out either red, or black. It's the same clay, but if the fire is smothered, preventing any oxygen from getting into the pot being fired, a chemical reaction occurs in the clay, at a molecular level, which results in the red turning black. It's called oxygen reduction. or reduction firing. It is not a case of "smoke turning the clay black" as it is sometimes reported or believed.
If air gets to the piece being fired, it will stay red. Sometimes the firing doesn't "work" right, and you'll end up with a pot that's streaky, or brownish instead of black, or red with black smudges. The firing is an essential part of what the finished piece will look like. And this cannot be achieved from an electric kiln, it has to be in a traditional firing...which partly explains why this type of pottery is more expensive, it's very labor-intensive, and requires a great deal of skill, not only to make the pot, but also to fire it correctly.
That's fascinating canyonroad. I said glazed because I'd assumed it was as is most pottery, but it was a very strange looking glaze, it looked like a dark wood. Now you've said that it makes more sense. When it broke (I threw it away unfortunately or I'd post photos) the clay was very red/orange but the outer 3mm or so looked burnt & the outside polished shiny rather than a glaze painted on. I'm really wishing I hadn't thrown it away now. Thank you for explaining that.