SPURIOUS MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES. 



331 



back a im in be i" of showy pieces, now in the U. S. National Mnsenni, Imt 

 so far as I can learn we are left in uncertainty as to whether this officer 

 actually saw them exhnmed or whether he took the word of some native 

 collector. Dr. Charles llau, relying npon the statements furnished by 

 the collector, i)ublished cuts of some of them in his "Collections of the 

 National Museum." 



By reference to Yig. IG it will be seen that these pieces are highly 

 ornate and that although they are somewhat clumsy, they show con- 

 siderable skill in construction and finish. The plastic ornamentation 

 consists of a heterogeneous collection of figures and ornamental ele- 

 ments thrown together apparently without reference to origin or siguif- 



FlG. 16. — Large ornate vase iu black clay. 



icance, and by artists wholly ignorant of the true nature of ancient art. 

 The maker has had in his outfit nn assortment of molds made from 

 little figures, picked up here and there throughout ]\rexico. By press- 

 ing bits of clay into these, casts are made Mhich were afterwards at- 

 tached to the body of the vase in such positions as fancy happened to 

 dictate. A serpent was added here and a bird or a lizard there and 

 the work was finished by polishing with pebbles and indenting with 

 little stamps. These vases have been attributed to the Zopotecs, but 

 they bear but slight resemblance to the well-authenticated work of that 

 people. In Zopotec art, a vase is embellished with the figure of a single 

 personage and the symbols proper to him. but iu this bastard art, images 

 and symbols of the whole Mexican pantheon are crowded upon a single 

 piece. 



