This is a spectacular square jar by Dolores Curran.  Before she began making her carved pieces, she was well known for her delicately painted buff-on-red pottery.  The jar is a large piece of her pottery, highly polished red, and painted with buff clay for the design.  Amazingly, she would paint each piece up to five times to get the color of the matte-painted areas deep and consistent enough!  This jar has square sides and a short neck.  The neck of the jar has an avanyu.  The top of the shoulder has cloud designs. The sides have tiny painted avanyu and feather patterns.  The designs are exceptional on this jar and match the shape of the piece.  The size makes it dramatic and the precision of the painting is visually striking! Not only does it take multiple layers of clay to paint the designs, but all the design work must be done before firing.  Over the years, Dolores mostly made painted miniatures due to the time-consuming nature of the painting. The jar is signed, “Dolores Curran”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.