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Olla (water jar)
Native American, Acoma Pueblo
1880–1900
Object Place: Acoma, New Mexico, United States, Southwest
Medium/Technique
Earthenware with slip paint
Dimensions
29.8 cm (11.75 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Anne and Joseph P. Pellegrino
Accession Number1988.290
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
DescriptionBlack and red slip decoration with white ground on coil-built earthenware water jar. Geometric designs painted in a four-part arrangement involving checkerboard chevrons, fine line striping, and stylized foliate bird ornament. Base colored black; rim ringed in black. Interior rim colored one third down with red clay slip; rest of interior white.
ProvenanceLate 19th/early 20th century, probably acquired by either Alfred Wayland Cutting (b. 1860 - d. 1935), Wayland, MA, or Francis Bacon Sears (b. 1882 - d. 1943), Weston, MA, and passed by descent to Edwin B. Sears (b. 1911 - d. 1987), Woburn, MA [see note]; May 14-15, 1988, consigned by the Sears estate, Northeast Auctions, Hampton, NH, lot 226, to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 25, 1988)
NOTE: The jar is thought to have been acquired either by Sears's great-uncle, Alfred Cutting, who traveled to Santa Fe in 1885 and made purchases at Gold's Trading Post, or his father, Francis Sears, who traveled to the American Southwest in 1904.
NOTE: The jar is thought to have been acquired either by Sears's great-uncle, Alfred Cutting, who traveled to Santa Fe in 1885 and made purchases at Gold's Trading Post, or his father, Francis Sears, who traveled to the American Southwest in 1904.