Description

This is a beautiful olla featuring four Zia roadrunner birds with stylized designs over a cream slip. Each section of the olla is separated by rainbow bands, clouds and other geometric designs typical of Zia pottery. This jar is traditional in every aspect of its creation.  It has basalt as a tempering agent and was formed in the traditional coil method, painted with all natural materials and fired in an outdoor fire.  Gloria placed her name on the polished red underbody just below the double framing lines in the traditional manner of Zia potters.

During the outdoor firing process, there were defects in the cream slip applied to the upper body of the olla as evidenced by the numerous spalling that occurred. The lower red section is quite smooth and highly polished.

 Zia ollas are valued as water jars, since they are porous enough to allow water to seep through the wall of a jar sufficiently for evaporation and cooling of the water, yet the jar is strong enough to withstand the moisture.

Condition:  Very Good – original condition with spalling as noted above. It has minor ethnographic wear to the surface, which is to be expected with a piece of pottery of this age.
Provenance: Acquired from a gentleman from New Mexico.