Powhogeh polychrome storage jar featuring white slip with black and red painted decoration. Powhogeh polychrome storage jar featuring white slip with black and red painted decoration.
Powhogeh polychrome storage jar featuring white slip with black and red painted decoration. Powhogeh polychrome storage jar featuring white slip with black and red painted decoration.

About the Object

This three-color Powhogeh polychrome storage jar features white slip with black and red painted decoration. This Powhogeh storage jar stands in its large globular shape with a medium-sized mouth opening. The surface decoration consists of three horizontal bands, framing lines, and a high red base. The top band is an oval-shaped black contoured pattern that may symbolize open leaf and/or bead motifs. The body band includes a variety of designs that purposefully cover the large surface of the jar. These designs are sizeable triangles that include a stacked black triangle pattern inside and are attached to a winding four-leaf motif. Other elements are feather and cloud symbolism.

 

Additional Information

Powhogeh pottery was named after the traditional land of Powhogeh Owingeh (“Where the Water Cuts Through”), also commonly known as the Pueblo of San Ildefonso. Powhogeh jars such as this were domestically utilized as storage jars for food and kept inside Pueblo homes. These types of jars were the least likely to break because of their thick base walls and molded flat bases, which may speak to why they exist today.

Unknown Artist;
C.G. Wallace Collection;
Larry Frank Collection, Arroyo Hondo, NM;
[Morning Star Gallery, Santa Fe, NM];

Related Objects

Santa Ana Polychrome Water Jar

c. 1870 Unknown Artist
Santa Ana polychrome water jar featuring white slip with black and red painted decoration.

Santa Ana / Zia Storage Jar

c. 1885 Unknown Artist
A brown Zia storage jar with a map-like design.

Acoma Polychrome Storage Jar

c. 1900 Unknown Artist
An Acoma jar decorated with birds, flora, and geometric shapes.

Acoma Four Color Polychrome Jar

c. 1890 Unknown Artist
An Acoma jar decorated with black, beige, rust-brown, and red geometric patterns.

Cochiti Polychrome Olla

1890-1900 Unknown Artist
A Cochiti olla with floral designs, waterbird pictorials, and a rust bottom.

Cochiti Polychrome Dough Bowl

c. 1880 Unknown Artist
A beige and rust-brown ceramic Cochiti dough bowl with a black emblematic design.

San Ildefonso Black-on-red Lidded Jar

1880-1890 Marianita Roybal
A San Ildefonso red lidded jar with black designs.

Cochiti Polychrome Storage Jar

c. 1870 Unknown Artist
A brown Cochiti jar painted with a black design including leaves, a plant, and four birds.

Acoma Polychrome Olla

c. 1870 Unknown Artist
An Acoma polychrome olla decorated with birds and flora in black, browns, and rust.

San Ildefonso Polychrome Jar

1860-1920 Crescenio and Anna Martinez
A San Ildefonso jar with three bands of black and brown geometric designs.

You may also be interested in

Exhibition, March 18 - May 15, 2009

Ryo Toyonaga: Mephistophelean

Between 1995 and 2003, Japanese-born artist Ryo Toyonaga produced some 300 ceramic-based objects in his Red Kill Studio, a secluded cabin in the Catskill Mountains.