The decoration on this Mexican earthenware jar (tibor) borrows from 17th-century Chinese porcelains imported from Manila via the Spanish Galleon trade. These ships arrived in Acapulco, Mexico, then cargo was transferred to Mexico City and Puebla de Los Angeles, and then some of the goods were shipped on to Spain. Spanish potters introduced wheel-throwing to Mexico, as well as the tech-nique of tin-glazing on earthenware, which imitated porcelain from China. The name for this style of pottery – talavera – comes from the famed ce-ramic centre Talavera de la Reina in Spain. The form comes from Spanish pottery, and ultimately from earlier Islamic metal forms.
