Acoma Pueblo Pottery By Ruby Shroulate

Priced "as is"

Mid/Late 20th Century

8.25" H x 10" D

White Slate Like Clay with Hand Painted Black and Orange Geometric Designs

In Good Condition with a Crack as Shown in Pictures

Mrs. R. Shroulate, also known as Ruby Shroulate (sometimes signed as R.T. Shroulate or Mrs. R.T. Shroulate), was a traditional potter from Acoma Pueblo, a Native American community in New Mexico often called "Sky City" for its location atop a 350-foot mesa. Acoma Pueblo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in North America, with roots dating back over 1,000 years, and its pottery tradition reflects a deep cultural heritage tied to the land, spirituality, and ancestral techniques. Shroulate's work, produced primarily in the mid-to-late 20th century, exemplifies classic Acoma style: hand-coiled vessels made from fine, slate-like white clay sourced from the surrounding hills, fired in outdoor pits, and decorated with intricate geometric patterns using natural mineral and plant-based pigments in black, red, and orange on a white slip background.

Acoma pottery is renowned for its exceptionally thin walls (often paper-thin, allowing the pieces to "ring" when tapped), symmetry, and symbolic designs inspired by nature, such as rain, lightning, clouds, mountains, parrots, deer, and fine-line geometrics that evoke falling rain or ancestral motifs from ancient shards. These designs are not merely decorative; they carry cultural significance, symbolizing elements like fertility, protection, and harmony with the environment. Shroulate's pieces, like many Acoma works from her era, were influenced by revivalists such as Lucy M. Lewis and Marie Z. Chino, who popularized signed pottery in the 1960s to appeal to collectors and tourists after the arrival of the railroad in the 1880s.