Mexican Country Style - Hardcover

Witynski, Karen; Carr, Joe P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0879058145 ISBN 13: 9780879058142

Publisher: Gibbs Smith, 1997

Synopsis

Mexican Country Style is a celebration of a rugged, romantic beauty and soulful antiquity that is sweeping the country and making its way into the contemporary interiors, gardens, and commercial settings of well-known people and businesses. The authors traveled by bus and burro through coastal villages and old colonial mining towns to seek out simple, robust country tables, weathered storage trunks, and sculptured sugar molds, pictured in 170 photos, 140 in full color.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Authors Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr have spent years winding their way by bus and burro through coastal villages and old colonial mining towns, bumping alongside sugarcane fields and down narrow cobblestoned streets in search of simple, robust country tables, workbenches, storage trunks, corral gates, and old, heavy doors. They were intrigued by the diversity they encountered--the variety in style, design, and shape of utilitarian vessels and carved wooden objects. From milking stools shaped like animals to grain-measure boxes and sculptural sugar molds, the pieces were like mirrors reflecting a rich local history as well as the ingenuity of the hands that made them. From mesquite-carved beams and window lintels to jail doors and coffee mortars, Carr and Witynksi found new homes in the United States for their salvaged finds. Although artists and collectors have been enjoying and living with Mexican antiques and accents for decades, the last ten years have seen a meteoric rise in their popularity in every corner of the country. Carr and Witynski soon found that their customers were as intrigued as they were with these Mexican objects and shared their curiosity to know more about their origins. The result is Mexican Country Style, a showcase of the rich heritage of Mexican antiques.

From the Back Cover

For decades, Mexico's countryside has startled visitors senses with the rich flavor of its tradition-bound world. Charmed by the character and ingenuity of the Mexican people, lovers of country style are irresistibly drawn to the rugged romantic beauty of the native architecture and the soulful antiquity of their handcrafted elements. The markings and textures that decades of time and wear have left on the indigenous furnishings and objects are character marks, alive with history, color, and personality.
Mexican Country Style is a celebration of this style's simple splendor, which is sweeping the country and making its way into the homes or offices of Jane Fonda and Ted Turner, Ralph Lauren, Val Kilmer, and Gene Hackman.
Nelson A. Rockefeller said of Mexico that "Its people have a love and understanding of the importance of the ordinary to the essential vitality of life. Instinctual, the mundane things made to carry out everyday acts, are all valuable and worthy of the greatest creative expression, (which is evident) in their lasting value and in the skill of their creators, their sense of sacredness of the routines of their daily lives."

Edition details

• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0879058145
• ISBN 13: 9780879058142
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 137