What we know of nineteenth century San Ildefonso pottery is derived from pieces found in the pueblo when collecting began about 1870; and from vessels secured between that date and 1900. The oldest examples we have were thus probably not made much before 1850, and the great bulk of the specimens now in museums and in private hands were presumably turned out during the last third of the century. This material (aside from cooking pots, of which the older collections contain practically no examples) is divisible into five types, two plain and three decorated. The plain wares are polished black and polished red; the decorated are black-on-buff, black-and-red-on-buff (usually called polychrome), and black-on-red.
The polished black and polished red are, as Dr. Guthe brings out in greater detail below (p. 74), merely variants of the same ware—the red being produced by a preliminary burning in a more or less open fire—the black by smothering the fire with pulverized manure at a late stage in the burning. Vessels of both sorts were evidently made at San Ildefonso during the period under discussion, the red rarely, the black fairly commonly. It is usually supposed that the making of these wares, particularly the polished black, was confined to the nearby town of Santa Clara, and vessels of the latter type are ordinarily referred to as “Santa Clara black”. This is a natural enough error as the Santa Clara turn out nothing but the polished wares, and until the last ten years they led all the other pueblos in the excellence of their manufacture. The Indians of San Ildefonso, however, say that they have always made polished black pottery, and while its production may have partly or wholly lapsed during the 90’s and early 1900’s, there is little doubt that many of the older specimens, such as the ones here illustrated ([pl. 4]), are actually from San Ildefonso. The majority of the examples of old black are large storage jars with full, round bodies and relatively small orifices; there are also capacious bowl-like vessels (called by the Mexicans cajetes), which were used for the mixing of dough. The old pieces are less meticulously finished than are those of today, but their deep, velvety black lustre is of even greater beauty than the extremely high polish of the modern pieces.
The black-on-buff decorated ware was evidently the commonest variety of nineteenth century pottery. It took the form of prayer-meal bowls (small open vessels with terraced sides); medium-sized pots ([pl. 3], e); and large storage jars ([pl. 4]). The ware, like all San Ildefonso work, is thick and heavy, giving a “woodeny” sound when tapped. The surface color is a creamy buff and the decoration is in deep black pigment. The bottoms of all the pieces, and the interiors of the necks of the jars, are painted red. The general nature of the elaborate designs is best brought out by the illustrations.[4]
Black-and-red-on-buff or polychrome was apparently not an abundant style in old times. Its occurrence at Cuyamongé and at Pecos, however, seem to indicate that it was always made at San Ildefonso. There are also in museums and private collections pieces which appear to be as old as any of the examples of non-polychrome. The style was seemingly limited to bowls and small jars ([pl. 5]). The ware itself is the same as the foregoing, but various areas in the decorations (which themselves seem to differ from those of the black-on-buff) are filled in with a purplish red paint of very characteristic shade.
The red-on-black, like the polychrome, was not common. As was said above, it is absent from Pecos and Cuyamongé, therefore it is apparently of fairly recent origin in the Rio Grande. Its introduction or invention may, indeed, date from as recent a time as 1850. It differs from the buff wares in having a dark red slip, much more highly polished than are the buff slips. The decoration is in deep black. No large pieces, as far as I know, were made, most specimens being small globular jars without necks. One of these and a vase-like vessel are illustrated ([pl. 5]).
Such was the pottery of San Ildefonso during the second half of the nineteenth century. Toward the end of that period, however, a marked degeneration set in.
PLATE 7
Courtesy K. M. Chapman
PRESENT-DAY SAN ILDEFONSO POTTERY