WOW!  This is an extraordinary new polychrome lidded jar by Russell Sanchez.   He continues to be one of the true innovators and revivalists in Pueblo pottery.  Each piece is perfectly coil-built, stone-polished, and etched.  The jar is round and a short neck. The neck is polished white and the body is a checkerboard of red, black, and matte micaceous rectangles. There are 264 rectangles etched into this piece! WOW! They are inset with coral and turquoise stones. The neck has inset hematite stones. Separating each of the rows of squares is a band of hematite hei-shi beads.  Along the neck are incised cloud designs each with an inset piece of hematite.  The jar has a white polsihed bear lid.  Onie side has inset coral and the other, inset turquoise.  There are a total of 298 inset stones on the jar and lid!  Russell says the coral represents the Winter Clan and the turquoise the Summer Clan. The polychrome part of the bowl is a white clay that is polished and then incised and painted with red and black clays.  It is a very time-consuming process.  All the colors are derived from natural clays and inspired by historic San Ildefonso polychrome pottery (black/red/white), using many of the same clays!  The colorations of black, red, and white are all seen in San Ildefonso’s pottery from the 1880s to about 1920.  His deep red clay is another recent addition to his clay art starting around 2005.  As Russell continues to innovate from historic designs, he says, “Tradition means moving forward and adding to it. You keep moving forward.  If we stayed stagnant we would no longer exist.”  The jar and lid are signed on the bottom in the clay, “Russell”.  It is exciting to see how this imagery is not new but Russell’s reinterpretation of it both modernizes and revives.  Russell most recently won “Best of Pottery” at the 2024 Heard Indian Market and “Best of Show” at the 2022 Santa Fe Indian Market.