19th Century Tortilla Maker

Tortillera [No.] 230 [Cabinet Card]

North, F. E.

Notes: An original mounted albumen photograph of a woman making tortillas outdoors on a stone pavement. In the photograph she is leaning over a stone metate, grinding corn. To the left (her right) is what appears to be a flat metal sheet for cooking. She is surrounded by clay ollas and fiber baskets.

The photo is on an F. E. North mount. North, with Otis Gove, operated a photo studio and shop in Mexico City in the 1870s. This image probably dates from the following decade. North is the only photographer credited on the mount and the "sucr" notation may mean "sucesor" or successor. The address of the studio, Espiritu Santo 7 is the same as Gove and North's studio.

7-5/16 by 4-5/16 inches (oblong) on a 8-1/4 by 5-1/8 mount stamped in yellow.

Edition + Condition: This is a medium contrast image. There is a small piece of the photographic print missing at the lower right corner, affecting only the stone foreground of the image. The mount is very good or better, with gilt beveled edges. One corner is slightly bumped.

Publication: Mexico: F. E. North SUCR, (ca. 1880s).

Item No: #308020

Price: $250