This is a complex 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 bowl is round and has a checkerboard design.  Each row has a series of squares that alternate red and matte, or black and matte.  The matte sections each have either a turquoise or coral.  Each row of squares is separated by a band of hematite hei-shi beads.  There are incised clouds around the neck.  The lid is striking with a VERY deep red polished bear. The bear has inset turquoise stones on either side along with red coral on the top.  The flat part of the lid is slipped with black clay.  There are inset coral along the top of the lid.  The contrasts of colors and clays, along with all the 134 stones, is exceptional.   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 bowl 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.