Maria Martinez San Ildefonso pot signed Maria Popovi, measures 4" x 3 1/2".   

 Julian Martinez and  Maria  Martinez were asked to replicate pre-historic pottery styles that had been discovered in an archaeological excavation of an ancient pueblo site near San Ildefonso. These excavations of 1908 and 1909, led by Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett (who was the director of the Museum of New Mexico), to produce examples of many pre-historic pottery techniques. Dr. Hewett asked Maria, who already had a reputation in the pueblo for being an excellent pottery-maker, if she could make full-scale examples for the museum of the polychrome ware.  Julian painted the  designs on the pottery after Maria shaped the pots. Maria and Julian refined their pottery techniques and  demonstrated their craft at expositions and fairs.

One fair was the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the 1914 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, and the 1934 Chicago World's Fair. Part of their success came from their innovations in the style of black-on-black ware.