Santa Clara Black AVANYU Pottery Jar Blackware Vase Vintage 1920s Lela Gutierrez

For your consideration is this beautiful and very RARE vintage hand coiled and hand painted Avanyu Serpent Blackware pottery vase jar by Santa Clara potter Lela Gutierrez (1895-1966) circa 1920s era. Lela and her husband Van (1870-1956) were credited with developing a decorative scheme featuring earth colors on a matte background. After his death, she started working with her son Luther on their pottery until her passing.

This gorgeous black Avanyu vase is an early piece of Lela's pottery that was patterned after blackware pottery made famous by her next-Pueblo neighbor Maria Martinez. The imagery on this piece represents the Avanyu Serpent, which is very symbolic in the Native American culture. This was created before Lela and her husband became famous for their redware and polychrome pottery. Lela hand coiled and hand painted this herself, as the paint is light in some areas and heavy in others, different from the painting of her husband Van. 

Measures approx 3 3/4" tall x 4 1/2" wide. It is signed on the bottom in light script, “Lela, Sta Clara Pueblo”. It is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair. Some very slight signs of wear on the paint, barely visible. Excellent condition for its age. Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.

A beautiful, RARE and One-of-a-Kind Santa Clara Black Avanyu pottery jar/vase by Lela Gutierrez to add to your collection!

The polychrome wares created by Lela and Van continued to be produced by younger members of the Gutierrez family, most notably their children Margaret and Luther, and Luther's daughter Pauline. Following the death of his father Van, Luther teamed up with his mom Lela and the two worked for about ten years, from about 1956 to 1966. Lela would create the pottery and Luther would to the hand painting. After the mom passed away in 1966, Luther and his sister Margaret teamed up and worked together until Luther passed away in 1987. Now Margaret works alone. Other descendants also carry on the family traditions and polychrome techniques.

We have many years dealing in fine arts and assure you that this item will be well packaged for shipping.

Statement of Authenticity:  We fell in love with Native American jewelry many years ago and really appreciate the true craftsmanship that goes into the making of a piece of genuine Native American jewelry art! That is why we chose to partner up with some of the oldest and most reputable Trading Posts in the Southwest who deal directly with the Native American artisans to bring you a large selection of authentic Native American products. These artisans come from the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi and affiliate tribes on the reservations, so you can be assured that all our Native American products are authentic! pz

(Disclaimer: We sell new items as well as old pawn that were handmade by authentic Native American artisans. Most of our old pawn items are One-of-a-Kind and subject to availability. Some of our new items can be re-produced and therefore may have some slight variances from the pictures. We do sell on other venues as well as occasional trade shows and reserve the right to cancel this listing if sold prior to any bids or offers. We try to keep our listings up to date, but may occasionally miss one. We highly recommend that you email us to verify stock so as not to disappoint. If unavailable, we will email you and offer an alternate item or a refund if payment had been made. In some cases, we can have one custom made with a two week lead time.)

(We try our best to present the item as accurately as possible, but due to the effects of photo lighting, camera settings or computer monitor settings, the actual color may vary slightly than pictured.)

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Returns: We do not accept returns for refund, but would be happy to work with you on a replacement or exchange if item was damaged in transit. Please notify us within 7 days of receipt for further instructions. Your satisfaction is our ultimate goal!