Descripción
2 volumes: xi+305 pages with tipped in colored and monochrome plates; 333 pages with tipped in colored and monochrome plates and reproduced signatures. Quarto (11 1/4" x 9") bound in half leather with gilt lettering to spine with original wrappers bound in. From the library of George M Foster. Copy 992 of 2000. Fist edition. For over four centuries, the city of Puebla has been praised for its production of quality tin-glazed earthenware. The use of ceramic as a utilitarian and artistic medium in the Americas (the region of eastern and central Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras) has a long history of quality work dating back millenia before the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. But it was, in fact, the Spanish who first introduced to area potters tin- and lead-based glaze, the potter s wheel, and the kiln. Production of tin-glazed earthenware in the New World first began in Mexico City, the viceregal capital of New Spain, in the second half of the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth century, however, the nearby city of Puebla, founded in 1531 as the second city of New Spain, had become the more important center of production, enjoying the widest distribution of any ceramic ware in the New World at the height of the Spanish Empire. For ceramists, Puebla was an ideal location: The climate is mild, the soil is fertile, and most importantly, there are extensive clay beds and sufficient deposits of raw sodium essential for glaze preparation. That the same area had captured the market for quality ceramics before the Spanish arrived is not a coincidence. Native potters must have played an important role in supporting the developing colonial industry. The early production of talavera poblana was primarily influenced by old-world traditions. Various European ceramic wares (from Spain, Holland, and Italy) were imported, serving as important sources of inspiration for resident ceramists. Potters themselves no doubt also influenced form and design. According to the potters ordinances established in 1653, master potters were to be only of Spanish descent. Contrary to the ordinances, however, some masters were Italian-born and probably arrived in Mexico via Spain; there were also a few mestizo (of mixed native and Spanish parentage) ceramists who rose to become "masters." The polychrome elements typify the Italian palette that was particularly influential in southern and central Spain beginning in the sixteenth century, and the motifs reflect those popularized at the Spanish ceramic center of Talavera de la Reina in central Spain, where Italian potters are known to have worked. Yet the careful rendering on the top left side of a turkey, which is native to the Americas, marks the piece as distinctly colonial. Among the most important cultural traditions that early Puebla potters integrated into their designs were those of Islamic origin. The horror vacui (fear of empty decorative spaces) is one Islamic convention that proved to impact a variety of styles. In fact, one clause of the potters ordinance stipulates the use of a dotting technique referred to as aborronado. The large, deep, and flat-bottom basin with steep, slightly flared walls is an Islamic form that became particularly important in Puebla, where the form was commissioned as baptismal fonts and wash receptacles. While a variety of techniques and decorative motifs traveled across the Atlantic from Europe, another conduit of influences opened from the Pacific. With the settlement of the Philippines as a Spanish colony in 1559, the Spanish Empire established a trade route that connected its territories across three continents. From 1565 to 1815, the ships commonly known as the Manila galleons, or Naos de la China, transported luxury goods including highly prized Chinese porcelain to the Mexican port of Acapulco for further shipment to other colonies. Some pieces are known to have been kept in Mexico, while others were transported across land to the port of Vera Cruz for. N° de ref. del artículo CA0031
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