Mata Ortiz Pottery

November 23, 2020

Find our entire southwest pottery collection.

Video Translation: Hi, this is Jennifer with City Farmhouse Antiques and I am here again with the find of the week. I know all the news has been terrible with Covid-19 and I'm actually not too far from El Paso, Texas so I hope you all are staying safe and now is a good time to think about our families and our homes and we need some pretty things to look at. So, I have that covered for you, especially if you like to collect southwest pottery. I have not unwrapped this yet. I just undid the tape because you know me...I'm always doing everything one handed. Ugh, I don't like the way they put this tissue in here. It's not really tissue. Can you see this paper? A quick little tip. I do not ever put this type of paper, it is soft but not real soft against my pottery. I don't like anything on my Mata Ortiz pottery that may be abrasive and oooooh.....gorgeous! You can see with this metallic graphite finish how things could easily rub. I always put soft tissue paper to wrap a piece before I put on the bubble wrap. I use a softer tissue paper so there is no abrasiveness. This gorgeous, gorgeous piece has its own stand if you can see it here. We are going to put it up on the stand..okay hang on. You can see the back. This is just beautiful. This is by a master potter. The potter that did this piece is Reynaldo Quezada who is actually Juan Quezada's youngest brother. Juan Quezada started all of the Mata Ortiz so this is definitely done by a master potter with a name behind it. That is why I bought it. Here you can see the signature here. Wow, that is beautiful. Look at that. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous piece. I love this metallic graphite because it just shines. This is a decorative style bowl and it's about 16 inches wide and look at that pattern. Look at the intricacies and the detail of the pattern. Look at the spacing in between each mark. You can tell it was done masterfully. Juan Quezada started Mata Ortiz pottery prior to 1970 and it really wasn't until an American anthropologist discovered his pottery at a New Mexican curio shop that it started to gain in popularity. Because the pottery looked so old and like artifacts that is what actually caught his attention and that is what really made Juan Quezada's pottery eventually so famous. Since then there have been a lot of potters that have learned the technique. Juan Quezada taught himself how to make the pottery using the clays of Casas Grandes which is about 150 miles outside Arizona so these pieces are made in northern Mexico. There have been all sorts of potters that make all kinds of pieces so this is another piece. This is what is called an effigy piece or a piece made to look like an animal. This is a shark or a little dolphin and it has a little stand. I actually have two of these. Pieces are collected and valued based on styles and what people like and also the value of a piece is going to differ from one potter to the next. Like this piece is made by Angel Guerrero Trillo and he is not a master potter so this piece is not going to be as expensive as something like this piece made by the makers brother of all Mata Ortiz pottery, Reynaldo Quezada. Now Nicolas Quezada is another very famous potter and he makes a lot of effigy pieces like this turtle. I love this turtle. Nicolas is also one of Juan's younger brothers so I have kind of a cool collection going. This was another piece that I just bought that came in with this last group of Mata Ortiz pottery but look at the detail on this piece. You can see there is the bear holding the fish. You can look at the bottom of the pot and you can see the turtle, the cattails, the rabbits drinking the water and the birds. I don't know if this is a cat or fox and there is another one on this other side. I'm not sure if he is drinking or trying to catch a fish, but the detail is amazing on this piece. This piece is incredible! This is a little pot mind you. All this detail is on a pot that is about 4 inches tall by 4 inches wide so it is just an example of how detailed pieces can be. I am looking for a signature here. That is the other tricky part on these highly detailed pieces. I just saw it. This one is by Leonardo, okay look there it is, you see that, Leonardo Lopez Saenz who is another master potter, but do you see how carefully you have to look on these pieces. Look, all of this is so detailed you see all of that was hand done, it is just amazing, in clay. The other new piece I got. I don't have room on this table so I will just to have to hold it. This is done by the same artist. Isn't this a cool piece with the lizards? You can see how if you have a southwest home how beautiful they would be as decor in a home. Comment in the box. Tell us how you would use these pieces or if you collect southwest pottery? Which piece would you buy? Look at the colors. Look at the contrast in the colors and how you could display these pieces in a kitchen or up on a shelf or display on an entertainment center. They really are beautiful with the contrasting colors and that is why people collect them in addition to the stories behind them and the artists who make them. This is our latest couple of pieces to our Mata Ortiz southwest Mexican pottery collection and be sure and check out all of our neat pieces on our website at www.cityfarmhouseantiques.com where we have more than just antiques and be sure and go give us a like on a Facebook. Message us and tell us if you collect southwest pottery and how you display yours. Until next week stay safe.