Aztec & Early Mexican Costumes, Set of 2 Antique Prints, 1500–1525, ca.1880

Name: Aztec & Early Mexican Costumes, Set of 2 Antique Prints, 1500–1525, ca.1880
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-13129-144, -145
Price: 550 USD
Availability: InStock

$550

€490 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1500
Kind: Native Peoples
Size: 31.5 × 23.5 cm (12.4 × 9.3 in)
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.
Period: Colonial America
Places: Mexico
Reference: BG-13129-144, -145

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

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.

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