Tony Da descended from a most talented family of potters at San Ildefonso Pueblo. His father, Popovi Da, was one of the first pueblo potters to break with tradition and create something other than black-on-black pottery. Likewise, his grandparents, Maria and Julian Martinez, were even more ahead of their time when, in the early 1900s, they broke with tradition when they created the now-famous black-on-black pottery, breaking away at that time from the polychrome wares that were traditional. With such a talented family, Tony was destined to be talented and famous, and certainly he was.

Maria and Julian were the first to transform everyday utilitarian pottery into non-functional works-of-art pottery when they fully develope...