Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Upper Rio Grande ValleyNorthern Rio GrandeRio Grande HispanicHispanic Utility-Plain WareValencia (Salinas) White

Type Name: Valencia (Salinas) White

Period: 1790 A.D. - 1900 A.D.
Culture: Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Upper Rio Grande Valley
Branch: Northern Rio Grande
Tradition: Rio Grande Hispanic
Ware: Hispanic Utility-Plain Ware


First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2014

I have previously defined Valencia White to include pottery noted at Hispanic sites in the Middle Rio Grande that exhibit characteristics noted in forms that have sometimes been labeled as Salinas White or Casitas White (Wilson 2001).
Valencia White as defined here exhibits paste and treatments similar to locally produced in late eighteenth and nineteenth century Hispanic sites (Carrillo 1997; Wilson 2001).

A white slip without painted decoration often occurs on both surfaces of bowls. Pastes and unslipped surfaces are gray-brown, brown, to yellow red and temper consists of tuff and sand fragments. Almost all slips are white and similar in color, and reflect the use of clay with exceptionally low iron content. Surfaces tend to be slightly polished, and surface characteristics more closely resemble Puname rather than Tewa Polychrome types. Slipped surfaces were often thin and streaky, with tan, brown, or gray surfaces often visible through parts of the slip. Vessel forms include bowls and soup plates. Exterior surfaces are commonly slipped while interior surfaces are usually not slipped. Examples of surfaces slipped on both sides and those exhibiting a white slip over the interior surface only were also identified. A few examples also exhibited bands of white slip similar in treatment and thickness as noted in Isleta Red-on-tan further indicating that the two types are certainly part of the same tradition may have been made by the same potters. Other examples indicate a white thin band across the interior of the rim along with a completely slipped interior. None of the sherds exhibiting combinations of paste and surface treatments used to define this type exhibited painted decorations. This may reflect the inability of the locally utilized slip to retain paint pigment. The Valencia White is assumed here to have largely been produced by Hispanic potters in an attempt to produce forms resembling unpainted white-colored Mexican majolica (Pueblo White) using plain ware technologies utilized by historic Pueblo groups.

References:
Carrillo, Charles M.
1997 Hispanic New Mexican Pottery: Evidence of Craft Specialization 1790-1890, LPBD Press, Albuquerque.

Wilson C. Dean
2001 Ceramics. In Valencia: A Spanish Colonial and Mexican Period Site Along NM 47 in Valencia County, New Mexico, by N.J. Akins, Office of Archaeological Studies Archaeology Notes 267, pp 37-60. Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.




Related Photos

Valencia White soup plate (exterior surface)

Valencia White bowl sherds