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Aztec & Early Mexican Costumes, Set of 2 Antique Prints, 1500–1525, ca.1880
$550
€490 · £415
Original print, not a reproduction.
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- Date
- 1500
- Sheet size
- 12.4 × 9.3 in (31.5 × 23.5 cm)
- Condition
- Good. Condition report: Light toning to the margins appropriate for age. Minor edge wear but safely outside image areas. Colors remain vivid and unfaded. No tears, stains, or losses. Plate marks visible where applicable.
- Wardrobe
- Far & away
- Era
- 1870 to 1900, Bustle
- Stock no.
- f_47519552
Aztec and early Mexican costume, two original color-printed plates by Max Tilke, published in Berlin by Ernst Wasmuth A.G. and numbered 144 and 145 at the head of the sheets. Both carry the imprint "Gedruckt und Verlegt bei Ernst Wasmuth A.G., Berlin", with the heading "Mexiko" repeated in German, English and French ("Mexico", "Mexique").
Plate 144 shows a group of warriors in ceremonial and military dress. Men wear a jaguar skin, tall feather headdresses and crests, and quilted cotton tunics, and they carry round shields with stepped-fret and striped designs, while a pyramid-like building with figures stands in the background. Plate 145 is headed "Mexiko 1500-1525" and presents civilian life in two registers: above, a porter with a load on his back and women in embroidered blouses and long skirts; below, men and a woman in cloaks, breechcloths, feathered ornaments and painted decoration, including a figure in a feathered headdress with a colorful tunic.
Tilke's plates belong to a costume-history series that reconstructs dress from different periods and peoples. Here his figures were drawn from codices and other early sources, and they remain a popular visual summary of Aztec dress at the time of the Spanish arrival.
