This is a classic storyteller from Helen Cordero  She is undoubtedly one of the great names in Cochiti pottery.  It was in 1964 that Cordero said she made her first storyteller.  According to her, “I made some more of my Storytellers with lots of children climbing on him to listen, then I took them up to the Santo Domingo Feast Day,” and the rest is history.  Her pieces were all male, to honor her grandfather, whom she would hear telling children stories of Pueblo life and culture.  She received the New Mexico Governor’s award in 1982 and the NEA Heritage Fellowship in 1986.  This is one of her classic male figures from the 1960s.  Note how the head is more rounded, which is indicative of her earlier work.  The children are all sculpted out of the clay body. This is how she made her earlier pieces. Then, of course, she realized that it was easier to just make the children separately and apply them to the figure.  It is unusual to find one of her early pieces where it is so easy to identify how she created the children as part of the process!

“In the late 1960s, she began making the children separately and appliquéing them, rather than pulling them out of the primary piece of clay. This technique enabled her not only to increase the number of children, but to vary their placements and postures, and it made for much greater success in firing.”

The figure is highly detailed and each is painted with detail on their shirts. It is a charming and historically important piece!  The piece was painted with wild spinach (black) and red clay on white clay.  It was traditionally fired.  It is signed on the bottom, “Helen Cordero”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.