San Jose Mission, San Antonio, TX   Circa 1920-1950’s

Ethel Harris established her “Mexican Arts & Crafts” workshop to train and create jobs for Mexican craftsmen while preserving the arts and crafts traditions. The production consisted of wrought iron tile tables, pottery and tiles. The tiles were glazed in very brilliant colors. The images on the tiles were often Mexican workers and dancers, scenes of Mission life, cowboys, Texas animals and flowers, especially the maguey plant. Harris considered the maguey, a type of agave, the most beautiful plant in the world, so it was painted as the subject of the tile, as a small signature in the corner, or scratched on the back for identification.