Mid 20th Century Native American Madeline Tafoya Signed Blackware Vase, Santa Clara Pueblo

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Native American Madeline Tafoya Santa Clara Pueblo Carved Blackware Vase, signed on bottom, 5¾" high x 5" diameter.

A hand-coiled … Read more Native American Madeline Tafoya Santa Clara Pueblo Carved Blackware Vase, signed on bottom, 5¾" high x 5" diameter.

A hand-coiled pottery blackware vessel from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, signed "Madeline T. / Sta. Clara" on the underside. The jar has a high-gloss stone-polished neck and shoulder contrasted against a matte-carved lower body, incised with a stylized avanyu (water serpent) motif — a traditional Pueblo design symbolizing rain and fertility. Fired in the traditional reduction method that produces the deep black color characteristic of Santa Clara ware. , good vintage condition with light surface dust or oxidation consistent with age; no chips or cracks, condition with no obvious repairs or damage visible under normal viewing.

Professionally packed and shipped with care from Sebastopol, California

Artist Biography

Madeline Tafoya (1912–2002), Santa Clara Pueblo

Madeline Tafoya was a Santa Clara Pueblo potter active from roughly the mid-1930s through the 1970s. She was a daughter of Sylvania Naranjo and a granddaughter of Santana Gutierrez, a sister of Geronimo Tafoya — placing her within the extended Gutierrez-Tafoya family that pioneered Santa Clara's deep-carved blackware tradition in the 1920s. She was a cousin of Margaret Tafoya, the pueblo's best-known matriarch potter. Adobe Gallery lists her (also recorded as "Madelina Tafoya") as making black-on-black, carved blackware jars, bowls, and wedding vases, and identifies her as the wife of Joe A. Tafoya.

She learned pottery from her grandmother and aunt and specialized in traditional Santa Clara black and red ware. She won multiple awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market and received the New Mexico Governor's Award, and her work is cited in Berger & Schiffer's Pueblo & Navajo Contemporary Pottery (2000/2004). She died in December 2002 at age 90, survived by two daughters, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren; a son and a great-granddaughter predeceased her. See less