56 
House & Garden 
T H 
O F 
An albarello or drug 
jar in Mexican maio- 
lica, with blue decora¬ 
tions. 18th Century 
T HE ancient Saracenic art of 
glazing earthenware with ox¬ 
ide of tin had a long journey 
through hi story till it crossed the At¬ 
lantic and was fostered in old Mex¬ 
ico. Egypt and Persia had this art 
of making maiolica ware from the 
Saracens, whence it was carried into 
Moorish Spain. From the Spanish 
fabriques maiolica making was car¬ 
ried into Italy, while from the Ital¬ 
ian craftsmen the potters of 
France received their inspiration for 
their faience—just another word for 
maiolica—and glazed earthenware 
was then taken up by the potters of 
Germany and of Holland. These few 
facts will be interesting to note when 
turning our attention to the little 
known subject of the maiolica wares 
of old Mexico. 
Sometime in the 16 th Century 
Spanish potters were sent to the New 
World and in Mexico successfully 
applied their craft to native eaiths 
lending themselves to maiolica manu¬ 
facture. There they established pot¬ 
teries and before long transmitted the 
secrets of their craft to the native 
Mexican workmen. La Puebla de los 
Angeles was, at this time, the town in 
which the early Mexican and Spanish 
maiolica-makers had set up their 
ateliers, and for over three hundred 
years this ancient city remained the 
center of the Mexican maiolica in¬ 
dustry. Barber tells us that native 
workmen had long before produced 
an unglazed ware in Mexico and had 
A Mexican maio¬ 
lica jar with poly¬ 
chrome decorations 
of the Pueblan style 
of 1840—1860 
E M A I O L I C 
OLD M E X I C 
Our Neighbor to the South Furnishes This 
Field for the Collectors of Kerantics 
GARDNER TEALL 
Dating from 
1650 is this 
laver with 
strap— and 
loopwork de¬ 
signs in blue 
{Left) A 
spherical jar 
in red , yel¬ 
low, green and 
black dating 
from 1860 
“Silhouette style” de¬ 
corations are found on 
this mid-i8th Century 
specimen, of albarello 
continued its manufacture from the 
time of the Spanish Conquest, so the 
early Spanish potters merely trans¬ 
mitted certain composition secrets to 
native craftsmen already versed in 
the principles of the oldest of the arts. 
Dr. Edwin Atlee Barber’s intro¬ 
duction to the catalogue of the Emily 
Johnston De Forest Collection of 
Mexican Maiolica now in the Metro¬ 
politan Museum of Art quotes the 
following from Counsul-Gteneral 
A. M. Gottschalk’s report to the 
State Department: “In the early 
days of Puebla’s history the Domi¬ 
nican friars, struck by the aptitude 
of their Aztec parishioners at making 
crude native pottery, and desirous 
also of obtaining tiles for the monas¬ 
tery and church which they were 
building, sent word to the Dominican 
establishment at Talavera de la 
Reina, in the province of Toledo, 
Spain, that they could make good use 
of five or six of the brotherhood who 
This laver or wash bowl in dark blue 
decorations characteristic of the period 
1660-1680. This and the other illus- 
strations are shown by courtesy of 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art 
were acquainted with the Spanish 
process of pottery-making, if such 
could be sent to them. Accordingly, 
a number of Dominican friars, 
familiar with the clay-working pro¬ 
cess in use at Talavera, were assigned 
to the Puebla house of their order, 
and under them were trained a gen¬ 
eration of workmen who for the first 
few succeeding years produced some 
excellent pieces.” 
Only within the last few years have 
collectors and students of keramics 
(Continued on page 114) 
An example of the 
“tattooed style” is 
this vase with ani¬ 
mal, bird and fern 
decorations in blue 
