File:Mexico to-day, a country with a great future; and a glance at the prehistoric remains and antiquities of the Montezumas (1883) (14782737545).jpg

Identifier: mexicotodaycount00brocuoft (find matches)
Title: Mexico to-day, a country with a great future; and a glance at the prehistoric remains and antiquities of the Montezumas
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Brocklehurst, Thomas Unett
Subjects: Mexico -- Antiquities Mexico -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, Murray
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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d to be ancient.I have given two on Plates LIII., LIV. (at end of volume). SenorMendoza said they were considered to be ordinary domestic Aztecware. The market price of these vases was only from four toeight shillings, apparently a very small sum for the amount ofworkmanship. It was further supposed that if these black vaseswere imitations, the workman had probably an original vasesomewhere in reserve from which the copies were made. Thereare a number of these grotesque vases in the cupboards of theBritish Museum, which I have examined. Mr. Franks and hisfriends intend to place them amongst the Christy Collection, ifthey satisfy themselves as to their authenticity. Obsidian is a vitrified volcanic matter having the appearanceof jet or black glass; it is found in large and small beds traver-sing volcanic rocks; its structure is compact, brittle, colour abrownish-black, lustre vitreous; opaque, but translucent on theedge; it fuses into a transparent glass before the blow-pipe; it Fl,XXM
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AZTEC JAR FROM TEOTIHUACAN (lO INCHES HIGH^ CHAP. XX. BROKEN POTTERY AND IDOLS. 179 may be called melted silica crystallised. Whether the Aztecsfound rocks of it in the volcanic regions of the plain or dependedupon boulders of it in the rivers and streams I could not learn.I found many small boulders of it a few inches in diameter in thebrook or river that meanders through the plains of Teotihua-can. It was of this substance that the Aztecs made masks, vases,ear-rings, lip-rings, many ornaments, knives, and arrow-heads—the two latter are to be found probably in every ploughed field inMexico. I have engraved a few; Plate LV. a (at end of volume)is called a core, from which the knives are sliced off. In theChristy Collection of Mexican objects in the British Museum aresome excellent specimens of obsidian ornaments ; also some ringsin the process of manufacture, indicating the immense labourrequired to work this brittle substance into delicately fine orna-ments. The Aztecs lip ornament

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