o 



THE METAL ART OF ANCIENT MEXICO. 519 



THE METAL ART OF ANCIENT MEXICO. 



By HENRY L. REYNOLDS, Jr. 



F the contemporary writers of the conquest of ancient Mexico 

 there are but three who have told us that there were in that city 

 not only objects of gold, silver, and copper, but also some of bronze 

 and tin. They have, moreover, told us that some of these metals were 

 most skillfully wrought, and that the designs fashioned therefrom were 

 so marvelous and beautiful that even the European goldsmiths of those 

 days could not excel them. 



However true this may be, it should be remarked that there is 

 neither in the museums of this country, Spain, nor Mexico a single 

 representative relic of this advanced skill in metal-working. All the 

 Mexican specimens of unquestionable pre-Columbian origin that we 

 have are of pure copper, and are simply hammered into shape. There 

 are a few of bronze, but these, as well as some of copper, can not be 

 said to antedate the conquest. 



M. Guillaume Dupaix, who was employed by the King of Spain in 

 1805 to explore Mexico in search of remains of Aztec art, is the first to 

 tell us anything about Mexican metal relics. Though an endeavor is 

 evident throughout his notes to strengthen the belief in the greatness of 

 Aztec civilization, the only metal specimens that he describes are three 

 of what he calls " red copper." His annotator, Lenoir, referring to 

 these metal specimens, properly adds that " this red copper is native, 

 whereas the yellow copper is the result of an alloy which the Mexicans, 

 it appears, did not use.'''' * 



The twelve Mexican axes collected by Dr. Palmer, Mr. Frederick 

 Ober, Prof essor Agassiz, and Mr. L. H. Ayme, seven of which are in the 

 Peabody Museum at Cambridge, and the two in the National Museum 

 at Washington, are all of pure copper ; and Professor F. W. Putnam, 

 who had the privilege of examining the former, tells us that there is 

 no doubt that they were all shaped by hammering. This is also true 

 of those in the National Museum. 



These axes are of but two types, and it is gratifying to see that 

 they correspond to the two forms figured in the ancient paintings. 

 We might, therefore, reasonably deduce from this the fact that those 

 figured axes were of a like composition to these that survive, and also 

 that they were wrought with the hammer. To further sustain this 

 conclusion, Landa gives, in his " Cosas de Yucatan," a cut of a Yuca- 

 tan axe which also corresponds in shape to those just mentioned. 

 These, he says, " are made of a certain metal, and shaped by hammer- 

 ing the edge with stones." Now, upon the authority of Cogolludo,f we 

 know that these hammered axes of Yucatan were made in Mexico, and 



* " Antiquites Mexicaines," deuxieme partie, Planche II. 

 f " Historia de Yucatan," lib. lv, cap. iii. 



