Unknown Isleta Potter

There was no tradition of signing a potter’s name to a piece of pottery at Isleta Pueblo until well into the 1950s. Previous to that, most of what little pottery that was being made at Isleta Pueblo was made strictly for the tourist market. There was no value in putting a name on it, most of it didn’t even have “Isleta” inscribed on the bottom. It is recognizable as being from Isleta by the shapes, the colors of clay used and the designs painted on it. That said, much of the tourist trade ceramics attributed to Isleta were made by descendants of Laguna potters living at Isleta.