Naranjo, Nicolasa – Water Jar with Avanyu and Plant Designs (1968)

5.5"w x 8.5"h

$ 450.00

Nicolasa Naranjo was a daughter of potter Tomasita Tafoya Naranjo and a niece of Margaret Tafoya.  She created a wide variety of pieces over the years of her pottery career, including polychrome pieces as well as black-on-black pottery.  This jar was originally purchased in 1968.  It is a classic long neck water jar.  It is painted with a plant and rain design around the neck and a water serpent (avanyu) around the body of the piece.  It is very highly polished.  It is an interesting color as I think it reads more brown in the light but is it is really more of a brownish-black.  It is one of the earlier pieces I have had of her work and one of the more intricately painted.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Nicolasa”