Talavera Pottery

Talavera Pottery at an outdoor market in the ancient city of Toledo, Spain. The Toledo region has been well-known for its distinctively decorated Castilian pottery for at least the last 1,000 years. The pottery of the Toledo region sets the highest standard for the rest of the world. In fact, in Latin America the common term for hand-painted ceramics is "Talavera" named after the town about forty-five minutes from Toledo. The Talavera pottery has its roots in the Arab-Andalusia culture in Spain. About 8 centuries ago Arab potters settled in a location now days known as "Talavera de la Reina" and established and developed the techniques and procedures to create the earthenware known as Majolica. The word Majolica originated in Italy and it refers to a process that the Italians used in the 14th Century to produce ceramics. This technique consisted basically of applying or brushing pigments on raw or unfired glaze. Majolica was introduced in Mexico in the 16th Century, when according to the most accepted theory, Spanish monks used craftsmen imported from Talavera de La Reina to teach native artisans living in the Puebla region how to work the clay in order to craft pieces comparable to the ones produced in Spain. The monks wanted to decorate monasteries and churches with tiles and religious figures. Since the mineral pigments needed to produce the color blue were very expensive, this color was reserved for the finest ceramic. Talavera buyers could easily differentiate the quality of fine ceramic from the one of lesser quality. During the 18th Century the Talavera artisans started to broaden the designs of their ceramic by using more colors, like green, mauve and yellow, in addition to the blue tones that were very popular in the 16th and 17th Centuries.