CIRCA 1790

Part of an interesting group of five services, found mostly in small tea forms, that were apparently ordered by the cities of Puebla, Mexico City and Valladolid, the Consulado of merchants in Mexico City and, as in the present example, the Royal Academy of San Carlos, on the occasion of King Charles IV's accession to the Spanish throne in 1788. J. Mudge (op. cit., pp. 80 to 83) identifies the designer of several of the seals used as the Spanish artist Jeronimo Antonio Gil; on this piece GIL is found in gilt at the bottom of the medallion. The Academy of San Carlos, long a prestigious art school in Mexico City, more than a century later was attended by Orozco and Rivera. It is now the Museum of San Carlos.