Dean Wilson 2022

Pottery described as San Marcos Glaze was originally described by Mera (1933) for examples of very late Pueblo tradition glaze wares included with Glaze F that represented Spanish introduced soup plate forms commonly produced during the early part of the Spanish Colonial period. Initially, examples of glaze painted soup plates were included in this web site along with Koyiti Glaze F, but have been subsequently been described here given their distinctive shapes, associated styles and connections to plain ware pottery forms produced during later periods. Most examples of this form either reflect decorations over a white, cream or yellow slipped surface and characterized as glaze on yellow or over a orange or red slip and characterized as glaze-on-red. Examples assigned to this type also reflect the continual deterioration of the quality of glaze paint. Slips are often unevenly applied, and surfaces are often irregular. Variations in temper indicate that forms assigned to this type were produced and distributed over a wide area. Vessel forms are most commonly represented by "soup bowls or plates" where a flat tray lowers into a rounded bowl. Other European inspired or "Colono-ware" forms include cups and candlestick holders (Dyer 2010)

Painted surfaces are reflected by thick application and have a tendency to run to the extent that designs are often difficult to impossible to define. Designs are often extremely sparse often consisting of a series of isolated small crosses, stylized birds, triangles or short lines (Wilson 2011). Many partial vessels or partial may not contain decorations and may be assigned to historic plain ware types. The difficulty in distinguishing may indicate a historic continuity and relationship between vessels assigned to San Marcos glaze ware and historic plain ware types.

References:
Dyer, Jennifer Boyd
2010 Colono Wares in the Western Spanish Borderlands: A Ceramic Technological Study. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Mera, H. P.
1933 A Proposed Revision of the Rio Grande Glaze Paint Sequence. Laboratory of Anthropology Technical Series Bulletin No. 5. Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Wilson C. Dean
2011 Historic Indigenous Ceramic Types. In Settlers and Soldiers: The Historic Component at El Pueblo de Santa Fe (LA 1051), by S. C. Lentz and M. J. Barbour, pp 223 -234. Archaeology Notes, 410. Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.

Related Photos

San Marcos Glaze-on yellow sherds

San Marcos Glaze-on-yellow soup bowl (Colono Ware)

San Marcos Glaze-on-red soup bowl (Colono Ware)

San Marcos Polychrome cup (Colono Ware)

San Marcos Glaze-on-red cup (Colono Ware)

San Marcos Glaze-on-red cup (Colono Ware)

San Marcos Glaze-on-red soup bowl (Colono Ware)

San Marcos Glaze-on-red soup plate

San Marcos Glaze-on-red tripod soup plate (colono ware)

San Marcos Glaze-on-red tripod soup bowl (Colono Ware)

San Marcos Glaze-on-red tripod soup plate (colono ware)

San Marcos Glaze-on-red soup plate sherds

San Marcos Glaze-on-red soup plate sherds