Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-11-17
MEXICAN POTTERY
THE GENUINE ARTICLE HAS
MANY INVITATIONS.
Highly Ornamental Wares and An.
tique Designs Are in Great
Demand Among Col
lectors.

Mexico has been rather backward il
the manufacture of pottery and porce
lain. When Cortez landed, the natives
particularly in the neignborhood OF
Puebla, made a heavy, well-glazed pot
terry that was decorated in good
strong colors, and with many artistic
and curious designs. After the i'm
p~ortation Of the cheaper grades o.
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 3
factory has been established in Puebla
to reproduce facsimiles of the old
ware. The imitation is faithfully car
ried out, although, as in the al
tempts TO reproduce the English por.
celains of 100 years ago. modern
manufacturers find it quite impossi
bic 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.
jara, 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 a single sitting before his
subject, models SUCH remarkably good
likenesses in clay. Panduro is a
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-
facture of their pottery that distin.
guish ii from the product of any other
region.
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, neal
Mexico City, a highly glazed pottery
in dark green and black is made in
many fantastic shapes, and is liberal
ly purchased as souvenirs by devout
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-
ton 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.
as a rule, costing no more in silver
dollars in Mexico than they do in gold
in the United States. =