Mosaic Brass Pitcher

A footed pitcher of hand-wrought brass inlaid with glass mosaic, this is one of the functional hollowware forms at the center of Salvador Terán's independent practice. Davis and Pack recorded that Teran, always interested in new materials and techniques, was combining metal with mosaic and keeping a large workshop busy with such decorative objects (Morrill, p. 206).

The pitcher is raised on a foot and the body wrought by hand, with the mosaic set into the brass to supply color across the form. Larger functional vessels of this kind are the work of the orfebreria, the Taxco workshop given over to trays, pitchers, and tea and coffee sets (Morrill, pdf p. 15).

Teran's facility with mosaic grew out of his ambition for large-scale work, including the architectural mural that survives in Reveriano Castillo's former shop. The pitcher brings that pictorial surface onto a useful object.