The leader., 1905-10-07
MEXICAN POTTERY.
TEE GENUINE ARTICLE HAS
MANY INVITATIONS.
highly Ornamental Wares and An
tique Designs Are in Great
Demand Among Col
lectors.


Mexico has been rather backward II
the manufacture Of pottery and porce-
lain. When Cortez landed, the natives.
particularly in the neignborhood of
Puebla, made heavy, well-glazed pot
terry that was decorated in good,
strong colors, and with many artistic
and curious designs. After the i'm
portation Of the cheaper grades Of
European ware began, says Mod
ern Mexico, the native manufac-
ture degenerated, and for more
than a century Puebla did not make
as good pottery as during the early
days of the conquest Really good
specimens of the old Talavera ware
are becoming comparatively rare and
command good prices from dealers
and collectors. The demand for the
antique shapes in Jars and plaques,
with their large, striking designs, has
become SO great that quite recently a
factory has been established in Puebla
to reproduce facsimiles of the old
ware. The imitation is faithfully car
rSed out, although as in the at
tSmpts to reproduce the English por-
celains of 100 years ago, modern
manufacturers find it quite impossi-
BILE to fully attain the old blues and
yellows of the ancient potters. The
new Puebla ware, however, is highly
ornamental and finds ready sale among
visitors from the north, who appre-
ciate something so typical of the
country, and yet do not care to pay
the higher prices asked for specimens
of the original product.
The highest development of the
potter's art in Mexico is doubtless to
be found in the vicinity of Guadala-
5ara, where a great variety of useful
utensils are made, and, in addition,
many styles of decorative pottery and
even bric-a-brac and clay figures.
The. Mexicans. while they show little
originality, are faithful imitators, and
their copies of well-known works of
art are often splendidly executed. In
a suburb of Guadalajara lives the in
teresting Indian sculptor, Panduro,
who, with single sitting before his
subject, models such remarkably good
likenesses in clay Panduro is
philosopher, too, with the courage of
his convictions in greater degree than
most modern sages. He has had many
tempting offers to come to the capital
to work and others to go to the United
States, but he refuses them all. He
has his little home and garden in the
perennial spring climate of Jalisco,
and easily makes a comfortable living,
such as his simple needs require, from
the customers who come to him, and
he cannot be induced to roam by offers
Of either wealth or foreign fame.
Many localities throughout Mexico
have local peculiarities in the manu-
tacture of their pottery that distin
guish it from the product of any other
region.
At Cuernavaca some very artistic
designs are made that are readily dis
tinguishable by the decorations formed
by bits of porcelain inlaid in the soft
clay before baking. At the foot of the
religious shrine at Guadalupe, near
Mexico City, highly glazed pottery
In dark green and black is made in
many fantastic shapes, and is liberal
y purchased as souvenirs by deyout
pilgrims and curious tourists. With
in. the last couple of years the manu-
facture of cheaper grades of porcelain
and glassware has begun in Mexico,
but as yet the native products form
but a small percentage of the consump-
tion in these lines. Practically all of
the cheaper grades of china used in
Mexico come from Holland, while the
finer grades are French. Owing to
Mexico's system of avoirdupois duties,
heavy and coarser makes are COM
paratively expensive, while the fine
French porcelains are very reasonable,
ss a rule, costing no more in silver
dollars in Mexico than they do in gold
In the United States.