Small multi-coloured square jar, with rounded corners and large indents in each side. The shoulder is sharp and angles toward a straight sided, round neck. The round foot angles slightly inward. The glaze is brown with some areas of specked greenish blue and specks of black. The interior is speckled white and black. The base is unglazed.

Cylindrical jar, rounded, that inclines slightly toward the top. The shoulder is high and lightly angled toward the thin neck. Atop the neck is a wide round rim. The jar has a round base, only slightly smaller than the bottom of the jar. The jar is glazed a matte mottled grey brown, with a pattern of wavy and crossing lines carved horizontally around the body. The shoulder and neck are a matte brown, and the rim is a very shiny dark brown. The base is unglazed, and a dark orange colour. An artist signature is carved into the foot.

Small round trileg vessel with circle of round indentations. It is relatively tall and straight sided. The rim flares out slightly. The pot has three thick conical legs attached to the bottom. The wall of the body is quite thick, and on the interior can be seen to thicken toward the bottom. Close to the top of the body is a single encircling line of incised dots for decoration. The legs are covered in a regular pattern of similar dots.

Tall terracotta footed tricolour vessel. It is narrow at mouth, flaring toward a deep rounded shoulder. A tall, hollow pedestal is included in the formation, flaring at top where it meets the body of the pot, as well as at bottom. The pot is decorated with encircling strips of delicately painted patterns, consisting of swirls, geometric designs, and colour blocks. The interior of the pot is unpainted.

Terracotta painted trileg pot with animals. The round pot is somewhat squat and bulbous, with a concave neck and slightly flared rim. At the back, a rounded, open handle is attached at rim and shoulder. Opposite is a small creature emerging from the pot’s neck, with a large head and snout, curving arms, and large feet. On each side of the pot at the shoulder is a small head, similar to that of the creature on the front. The pot sits on three conical legs, each with grooves carved through to a hollow centre. The pot is decorated with a series of criss-crossing lines on the body, and diagonal lines on the interior of the neck, in a light orange colour.

Cylindrical trileg vessel with horizontal ridges and two handles at neck. Vessel is tall and cylindrical, with several encircling ridges on the body. The mouth is small with a thick flaring rim. From the neck protrudes a rounded handle. Opposite is a small head, possibly of a turtle. The pot sits on three legs, also shaped like turtle heads. Decoration consists of a line of incised dots around the shoulder and on the neck, as well as protruding half circles of clay with incised dots along the base.

Tarago bisque, bulbous pot with two zoomorphic handles. Pot has a small mouth atop a straight-walled neck, shoulder slopes slightly and has a short straight drop to the pot body, which is round and bulbous, wide at centre point and narrowing to a round pointed bottom. On either side of the neck is a small creature, with four legs and a raised tail. One of the creatures is headless (due to damage), while the other has a wide, squat face, long wide mouth, and slit eyes. The pot is not painted and has no other decoration.

Clay ocharina in a donut shape, thick and round with a central hole. The inside is hollow with two small holes bored on each side at top. At the front is an animal head(?) with two protruding circular eyes, an ear to one side (the other has been lost) and a large square nose. A windway is bored through the head from top to bottom rear, with a windcutter below. On the opposite side is a forked tail with a thick base, each fork curving and narrowing to where is connects again to the body.

Helen Cordero, Cochiti Pueblo, invented the concept of the Storyteller figure in 1964. She had been working with leather crafts but the poor income discouraged her. She felt her skills were not great enough to be a classical potter so when her cousin mentioned why didn’t she try doing figures , something that this Pueblo had done a great deal of in the 19th century, Cordero thought she could try. Effigies, small fetishes and charms made of stone, wood or clay are part of numerous ceremonies functioning to help maintain the balances between the natural, supernatural, and social order of things. But in the 19th century a commercial genre developed through encouragement of the Trading Posts. These pueblo sculptures were generally small figures of a singing woman holding a baby, a water bowl or platter; small, singing figures sitting cross-legged; or a standing male singing a song with one hand on their hip and another to their head. We have one such early male example from the late 19th century in our collection (02.257.2473.) When Cordero thought of a new subject for her first sculpture she envisioned her Grandfather. He was a famous storyteller and she had fond memories of him gathering all grandchildren around and relating stories to them as well as singing the songs associated with the characters. So Helen made two significant modifications in the singing mother tradition. She modeled a sitting male figure and placed a realistic number of children on him. Almost immediately her figures brought her acclaim and success. She won first, second and third prizes at the New Mexico State Fair, SWAIA’s first prize in Santa Fe, and first at the Heard Indian Market. She often did sculpture modeling demonstrations all over the country in Museums, international exhibitions and galleries. In fact her sculptures have generated and entire category of Native American pottery for which Cochiti Pueblo has become renowned. Helen continued making figures for over twenty years, always with a male figure, his eyes closed because he is thinking and he has numerous children scrambling all over him, in fact up to as many as 32.(This one has 14 children). Each large figure however is different wearing different clothes and jewelry, angled slightly differently, not a formulaic size, and each child was different in the same way. All are hand modeled. This storyteller, fashioned in 1987, is the last one Helen Cordero ever did and originally she was going to keep it. The collector visited her in her home and they got along so well she agreed to sell it. It is a large example done when Helen was at her very best. Strong, solid looking male figure, closed eyes, open mouth, necklace, headband, using colors Helen preferred of warm natural rust, black and cream, with delightful children - embodies all the very best of Helen’s artistry. The Museum actually does not have a story teller figure in the collection although our contemporary Roxanne Swentzell piece “Making Babies for Indian Market” is an ironic ‘take’ on this genre. This sculpture could be used in exhibitions featuring Native American or cross-cultural works: the human figure, pottery, invention of new genres, spoken language, storytelling, song, and children in art - the list if large. Susan Kennedy Zeller, Ph.D. Associate Curator of Native American Art

Signed: "Potter Sofia Medina decorator Rafael Medina".