Boas, Franz: Primitive art (Oslo , Leipzig [u.a.], 1927)

132

Symbolism

masses and, as described by Sahagun,1 sold in the market places.
The vessels show plainly the effect of factory production and of the
resultant slurring. The Aztec pottery is fundamentally of uniform
type. In Culhuacan, a small village at the foot of the Sierra de la
Estrella, a coarse kind of this ware was made. Great masses


Fig. 123. Fragments of pottery
vessels, Texcoco.

Fig. 124. Designs from pottery
vessels, Culhuacan.

of potsherds are found in the swampy soil which was used in
early times as garden beds. The pottery is thick, dark orange,
painted black. It is a pronounced local form, darker than the light
ware of Texcoco (fig. 123); the painted lines are broad and coarse,
while those of Texcoco are very delicate. The patterns are fixed,
but the rapidity of manufacture has developed a definite style, analog-
ous to the styles of handwriting. Each painter had his own method
1 Bernardino de Sahagun, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana, ed.
C. M. de Bustamente, Mexico, 1830, Vol. 3, p. 56.