Background and development of the tin-glaze tile industry in colonial Mexico

This study reveals past artistic traditions that influenced the tin-glaze tile and tile industry in colonial Mexico. It also chronicles the lives of potters in a dramatically changing world. The area of most influence came from Islamic art. It along with a small degree of Chinese influence was taken to Spain after 711 where they were the major components of ceramics there. Over seven hundred years later, Renaissance Italian tile with new colors and designs captured the Spanish artisan's attention. All of these traditions became the models for colonial Mexican tile and ceramics. In the late sixteenth century, Manila galleons carried Chinese ceramics to Acapulco. The export ceramics were decorated in the Islamic fashion. All influences were copied by Mexican potters.;The general time frame used for this study is 1550--1750. However, one chapter deals with background influences before that time. Archival documents reveal that potters brought from Spain the structure of the guild system that guided their social and economic lives until the beginning of the eighteenth century.;One unique aspect of this study is the reliance on three academic fields: archeology, art history, and history. Another is the use of photographs as visual documents in the first section of the dissertation. The second section, on the social and economic factors under which the potters lived, relied on archival documents and secondary sources.;Three overarching conclusions emerge from this study. The first conclusion is that continuity and change in the tin-glaze tile industry was remarkably evident over centuries. The second, racial restriction in the industry to Spanish males was an established pattern found in the documents until the eighteenth century. The third concerned the eminent decline in guild control and structure during the transitional period between the seventeenth century Hapsburg reign and the Bourbon reign in the eighteenth century.