Pot (Olla)

When curio traders from Santa Fe began to buy pottery from the Pueblos to sell to tourists in the 1850s, the decorative styles of the Haaku (Acoma) started to become more complex. Often the entire white-slipped jar was used for a single, continuous pattern. When the railroad was built through the heart of Pueblo country in the 1880s, it brought even more curio traders and tourist business for potters, which stimulated a great increase in the variation of form and design. The railway also caused pottery to become more of a commercial sale item than a domestic implement. Despite this trend, however, the more labor-intensive traditional pieces were still produced, but in far less quantity than the tourist items.