Art and Old Stuff in Taos

September 21, 2012

We started out the day by going to Historic Taos Plaza.  The historic buildings are now filled with shops, some with fine art and jewelry, and big price tags; others were typical souvenir shops.  After an hour or so we had enough, so we ventured north to the Millicent Rogers museum.  But first we stopped in a very large store selling all sorts of stuff.  One thing that caught our eye were ceramic sun faces, which we plan to mount outside on the east wall of the patio.  Should look pretty cool there.

OK, class is in session.  Millicent Rogers was the granddaughter of a  partner in Standard Oil, so she wasn't hurting for money.  She developed an interest in art and jewelry, and moved to Taos in the mid 1940s where she amassed a big collection.  She died there at the age of 51.  Her son set up the museum to share her collection.  It is located in a house donated by Claude and Elizabeth Anderson.  The architecture of the house alone is worth the admission.

The pottery in the following photo has a unique pattern of matte and gloss finish, and black on black.  The technique was developed by Maria Martinez in the late 40s.  The pot is polished first with river stone followed by the matte pattern painted on using a clay slip material. The black is created by blocking out oxygen during the firing process.

The cross shown here is gilded with what looks like gold, but is actually golden straw.  When sliced very thin it takes on the shiny gold appearance you see here.  There were several on display and you would think its gold foil.

Millicent Rogers had a huge collection of turquoise and silver jewelry.  Some of it is so rare as to be truly priceless.  In her later years she designed silver and gold jewelry, but died before the designs made it to market.

The last picture is of San Francisco de Asis Church in Taos.  It was built in 1815 and served as refuge for the Spanish inhabiting the area from Indian attacks.  It was restored in 1979 and, like the Pueblo, gets a fresh coat of Adobe every year.

Heading to Bandelier National Monument down the High Road tomorrow, stay tuned.  Class dismissed!