The Museum of Spanish Colonial ArtsGo to MSCA's home page Spanish Market The Museum of Spanish Colonial ArtsMuseum Hill Web Site
 


Tinwork in New Mexico

    

Arts & Crafts

Tin Artists

  

candlesticks
The 1821 opening of the Santa Fe Trail coincided with the worldwide acceptance and use of British tinplate and an increased popularity of tin crafts. In New Mexico, imported tinplate became more readily available. The increase in tinplate crafts and the immigration of Anglo tinsmiths to New Mexico during the period are well documented.

The 1930s also saw the revival of "poor man's silver," the tin art, much of it religious, that began to flourish after the United States Army occupied New Mexico in 1846. The appearance of imported tin cans coupled with Bishop Lamy's 1850 appointment to New Mexico in part caused certain forms of local religious art, such as retablos, to fall out of fashion while European prints framed in tin came into vogue. Until 1890, when commercial picture frames began to replace tin frames and coal and gas lighting replaced the need for candle holders, tin artists provided art made for pennies that today sells for thousands. Lane Coulter and Maurice Dixon, Jr. claim that "the New Mexican production of tinwork primarily for religious purposes is unparalleled elsewhere in American folk arts."
excerpted from an article by Donna Pierce in
Spanish New Mexico, The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Collection 		 
Traditional Arts

Join Us

Educational Programs

Publications

Museum Calendar

Spanish Market
Market Events
Market Artists
Market Awards
About Spanish Market

Visitor Information

Related Sites

Spanish Colonial Arts Society



tin (small)
  
   

Museum home | traditional arts | join us! | contact us | educational programs | publications | market | market artists


Copyright © 1997-2004 The Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts

   Last Modified: Thursday, 20-Sep-2007 10:41:20 MDT