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[Pages:15]PUEBLO INDIAN POTTERY

VOLUME I I

ED I TION

750 COPIES OF THIS VOLUME, ALL ON THE SAME PAPER HAVE BEEN PRINTED FOR SALE AND T H E S E HAVE B E E N NUMBERED 1 TO 750 AND E A CH COPY BE ARS THE S IGNATURE OF THE PUBLISHER.

THIS I S COPY N?: 3/

5 0 R E P R O D U C TI O N S I N C O L O R from Specimen in the famous Collection

of the INDIAN ARTS FUND

W I T H INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY

KENNETH M. CHAPMAN

C U R A T O R OF INDIAN ARTS FUND and the LABORATORY of ANTHROPOLOGY

SANTA FE - (New Mexico)

VOLUME II

PUBLISHED BY

C. S Z W E D Z I C K I

98 , R u e de France, 98

N I C E (FRANCE)

Copyright by C. Szwedzicki - 1936

INTRODUCTION

vOLUME I of this work contains a general introduction to the ceramic art of the Pueblo Indians of the Southwestern United States, with descriptive text and fifty plates illustrating the pottery of nine villages in the State of New Mexico, which are considered in the order of their distribution from north to south within the valley of the Rio Grande and its tributaries.

LE premier volume de cet ouvrage contient une introduction generale a Tart ceramique des Indiens Pueblos du Sud=Ouest des Etats= Unis, ainsi qu'un texte descriptif et cinquante planches illustrant la poterie de neuf villages de l'Etat du Nouveau=Mexique. Ces villages sont nommes par ordre, du Nord au Sud, dans la vallee du Rio Grande et de ses affluents.

In this Second Volume the sequence in geo= graphical distribution of Pueblo villages is fol= lowed to the west, in a consideration of the pro= ducts of four remaining pottery making pueblos whose wares show still further variations in form and color, and in general a greater technical perfection in decoration. A selection of the typical pottery of each pueblo is given in the accompanying group of fifty plates, which are described briefly in the following pages.

Dans ce deuxieme volume, la distribution geographique des villages Pueblos est continuee vers 1'Ouest; on y considere la production de quatre pueblos fabricants de poteries. Leur tra= vail montre encore plus de variations en formes et couleurs, et en general, un plus grand per= fectionnement technique dans la decoration. Une selection de la poterie typique de chaque pueblo est donnee dans les cinquante planches de cet ouvrage, lesquelles sont brievement expliquees dans les pages qui suivent

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TSIA

Ten miles to the northwest of Santa Ana, the last of nine pueblos considered in Volume I, lies the pueblo of Tsia. Here the ceramic art has flourished since pre=Columbian times, and it still persists, for the clay of Tsia and its temper of pulverized volcanic rock produce a ware so du= rable that it has long been in great favor, even among the other pottery making pueblos. The slip on new Tsia ware is white, but through use, it wears thin and becomes translucent, so that the reddish body clay imparts an ever dee= pening flesh tone to the surface. To the tradi= tional geometric designs of the early post=Spa= nish period have been added a profusion of plant and bird motifs, so that the range of Tsia deco= ration is wonderfully varied. Here, however, cer= tain traditional motifs are still repeated with variations only in minor details. The effect of Tsia's thriving craft is nowhere more noticeable than at the neighboring pueblo of Jemez. Here, practically no pottery has been made for the past century or more, the Jemez people using Tsia ware for which they exchange their bountiful crops of grain and fruit.

Farther south, in the Rio Grande Valley pro= per, Sandia and Isleta, the two southern Tigua pueblos, have long since abandoned pottery ma= king for their own domestic needs. At Isleta much small pottery of inferior and insufficiently fired clay is made for sale to tourists, but seldom is a specimen found in actual use.

TSIA

Dix milles au nord=ouest de Santa Ana, le dernier des neuf pueblos dont il est parle dans le premier volume, se trouve le pueblo de Tsia. Ici, l'art ceramique est florissant depuis les temps pre=co!ombiens, et il y persiste encore. L'argile de Tsia, melee de roche volcanique pul= verisee, produit des objets si durables qu'elle a longtemps ete en faveur, meme parmi les autres pueblos producteurs de poteries. Le vernis de la nouvelle poterie de Tsia est blanc, mais a la longue, il s'efface et devient transparent, si bien que le fond d'argile rouge acquiert a la surface une couleur chair. Aux traditionnels dessins geo= metriques de la periode post=espagnole, les po= tiers de Tsia ont ajoute une profusion de motifs de plantes et d'oiseaux, ce qui rend la decoration de leurs poteries merveilleusement variee. On trouve encore certains motifs traditionnels a peine changes dans de moindres details. L'in= fluence de 1'industrie prospere de Tsia n'est nulle part mieux perceptible que dans le pueblo voisin de Jemez. La, aucunes poteries n'ont ete fabri= quees depuis un siecle et plus. Les habitants de Jemez emploient les poteries de Tsia contre Ies= quelles ils echangent leurs abondantes recoltes de cereales et de fruits.

Plus au sud, dans la vallee propre du Rio Grande, Sandia et Isleta, les deux pueblos Tigua du Sud, ont abandonne depuis longtemps la fa= brication des poteries pour leurs usages domes= tiques. Isleta produit cependant une poterie d'ar= gile inferieure, insuffisamment cuite, destinee a la vente aux touristes, mais il est rare d'en trou= ver un specimen en usage.

?COMA

More thant fifty miles westward, in the upper reaches of a principal tributary of the Rio Grande, lies the pueblo of ? coma with its two farming villages, in each of which pottery making is the principal craft. The pottery of ?coma has long been famed for its thinness, its lightness and durability, its creamy white slip, and for its wide

?COMA

Plus de cinquante milles a l'Ouest, vers les e ten dues les plus elevees d'un des principaux affluents du Rio Grande, se trouve le pueblo d'?coma, avec ses deux villages de cultivateurs, chez lesquels le principal metier est celui de potier. La poterie d'?coma a longtemps ete re= nominee pour sa finesse, sa solidite, son enduit

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range of earth colors which are used b y potters unusually skilled with the brush.

Until recently the sequence of ? coma art was unknown, but through persistent collecting during the past five years, the Indian Arts Fund has acquired a notable collection which points to several unsuspected phases in development. Earliest among these specimens are several exam= pies with the indigenous pre=CoIumbian glaze, which appears to have survived at ? coma until perhaps as late as the great Pueblo revolt of 1680. In the evolution of ? coma design, the simplicity of the old arrangements has given way to the most complex decorative system of any pueblo. As at Tsia the decoration is frequently applied from rim to base line without regard for the distinction between body and neck as observed at other pueblos. Certain of the potters still favor a decorative medium of black which they use occasionally in the production of compara= tively simple pre=Co!umbian geometric designs. More commonly, however, the arrangements in black have become as complex as those of the polychrome ware. In their use of the bird, a conventionalized macaw, some of the ? coma pot= ters have held somewhat to the more sparingly used decoration of the earlier period, but even this element may become a mere incident in com= plex arrangements of color and hachure as seen in plate 73.

blanc creme, et ses larges bandes de couleur terre, lesquelles sont employ?es par des potiers sp?cialement adroits au pinceau.

Jusque r?cemment, I`art c?ramique d'?coma ?tait inconnu, mais apr?s de persistantes recher= ches, durant les cinq derni?res ann?es, 1'Indian Arts Fund a pu r?unir une importante collection dans laquelle on peut remarquer diverses phases de d?veloppement. Parmi les premiers de ces sp?cimens, on trouve quelques exemples de ver= nis pr?=colombien, lequel semble avoir exist? ? ?coma jusqu'a la grande r?volte Pueblo, en 1680. Dans 1?volution du dessin d'?coma, la simpli= cit? des anciens arrangements ? c?d? la place ? un systeme de d?coration, le plus compliqu? parmi tous les pueblos. Comme ? Tsia, la d?co= ration est souvent appliqu?e du col ? la base, sans la distinction qui est d'habitude observ?e chez les autres pueblos. Certains potiers em= ploient occasionnellement une d?coration noire de dessins g?om?triques pr?=colombiens, com= parativement simples. Tr?s frequemment cepen= dant, la d?coration noire est aussi compliqu?e que celle des objets polychromes. Dans leur re= production de l'oiseau, un ara conventionnel, quelques potiers d'?coma ont su garder la d?co= ration sobre de la p?riode ancienne. Ceci n'est pourtant qu'une exception parmi les arrange= ments compliqu?s de couleurs et hachure, dont on voit un exemple ? la planche 73.

?coma pottery has almost entirely supplanted the native ware of the nearby pueblo of Laguna where, in former times, there were potters of no mean ability. Today only the most trivial pieces are made for sale to passing tourists.

La poterie d'?coma a presque completement supplant? la production indig?ne de Laguna, pueblo voisin. Les potiers de Laguna ?taient pour= t a n t d'une habilet? remarquable, mais ils ne fabriquent plus maintenant q u e de vulgaires ob= jets pour vendre aux touristes.

Continuing westward, across the continental divide, we come to the drainage area of the Little Colorado River, with its two important Pueblo groups, the Zuni and Hopi, whose thriving cera= mic art has undergone still other modifications since pre=Columbian times.

En continuant vers l'Ouest, sur les ?tendues du ? Little Colorado River ?, on trouve deux im= portants groupes Pueblo, Zuni et Hopi. L'art c?ramique y a subi de nombreuses modifications depuis les temps pr?=colombiens

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ZU?I

The typical ware of Zu?i, like that of ? coma, h a s a w h i t e s l i p w h i c h w i t h u s e c h a n e s t o the tone of old ivory. Zu?i water jars of the earliest period are comparatively low and flat shouldered. Throuh centuries of modification these have become more globular in form thouh they retain the abrupt break in contour which marks the heiht of the shallow dish in in which they were formed. The base of typical Zu?i jars is painted black, and the decoration of the neck is separated from that of the body by a distinctive band of black, interrupted at one point by a gap of symbolic import already noted in the description of Santo Domino pottery, in Volume I. This is the ? spirit trail ?, the path left for the spirit of the vessel, which if too clo= sely confined may break the jar in its efforts to free itself. Birds and deer appear frequently in Zu?i decoration, the latter with a symbolic red line extending from the mouth to the heart. There is a remarkably consistent survival of the ancient decorative system of Zu?i, and even today complex arrangements of the old symbo= lism are faithfully reproduced, even thouh their import has become vague and confused in the minds of the potters.

ZU? I

La poterie typique de Zu?i, comme celle d'? coma, est recouverte d'un enduit blanc qui ane a Pusage le ton du vieil ivoire. Les jarres a eau de Zu?i, de la periode la plus reculee, sont

comparativement plates et peu ?lev?es. Apres

des siecles de modifications, leur forme est deve= nue plus spherique, bien que la brusque cassure des contours rappelle le plat peu profond dans lequel elles sont formees. Les jarres typiques de

Zu?i sont peintes en noir ? leur base. La decora=

tion du col est nettement separee du reste par une raie noire interrompue en un point pour lais=

ser place au symbole dont il est dej? parle dans

la description de la poterie de Santo Domingo, dans le premier volume. Ce symbole est la ? voie

de Pesprit ?, le chemin laisse libre ? Pesprit du vase qui, s'il ?tait trop enferme, pourrait briser

la jarre en s'efforcant de se liberer. Les oiseaux et les daims se retrouvent frequemment dans la decoration de Zu?i, ces derniers portant une symbolique ligne rouge allant de la bouche au coeur. On trouve une remarquable survivance de Pancien systeme decoratif de Zu?i, et meme

les arrangements compliqu?s actuels, reprodui= sent fid?lement les anciens symboles, bien que

leur signification soit devenue assez vague dans Pesprit des potters.

HOPI

Last to be considered is the pottery of the Hopi pueblos of Arizona. The clay of this region, the finest in all Puebloland, needs neither temper nor slip, and with the primitive methods of firing still used by the Hopi, burns to a variety of tones, from ivory, yellow, and orane, to a deep red brown, two or more of these tones usually appea= ring upon the surface of each specimen. A com= paratively small quantity of fine red slipped ware has also been made since earliest times.

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HOPI

La derniere ? consid?rer est la poterie des

Hopis, pueblos de PArizona. L'argile de cette reion, la plus fine de tout le pays Pueblo, ne

necessite ni m?lange, ni vernis. L'ancienne et primitive m?thode de cuisson encore employ?e par les Hopis change cette argile en une vari?t? de tons passant, de Pivoire au brun rouge fonc?,

par le jaune et Porange. Deux ou plusieurs de ces tonalites apparaissent a la surface de chaque

specimen. Une quantit?, comparativement res=

treinte, de fines poteries recouvertes de vernis

roue, a ?alement ?t? fabriqu?e depuis des t e m p s recul?s.

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