The V&A is renowned for its collections of Italian maiolica, British and Continental pottery and porcelain and Eastern ceramics. However, among the displays in the new Ceramics Galleries (opening 2009) are a number of less-familiar objects. Perhaps the most curious and engaging is a group of polished, clay vessels known as búcaros, which were made in the region around Tonalá in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Highly-polished earthenware vessels from Tonalá, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, were not only admired by the colonial settlers but exported to Europe in quantities from the early 17th century. The fashion for bùcaros de Indias (aromatic earthenware from Latin America) is well recorded in accounts and Spanish still-life paintings of the period. The vessels were celebrated for their fine and fragrant clay body, which infused a delicate flavour to the water contained within them. Fashionable Spanish ladies were known to eat small fragments of the bùcaros to benefit from certain gastronomic qualities. The aroma could be enhanced by storing the absorbent clay vessels in boxes scented with spices and oils.

Large, dimpled vessels were used to store water. The increased surface area aided evaporation through the thin walls of the unglazed clay. This served to humidify the hot and dry Spanish air. The process also cooled the remaining liquid and released the celebrated aroma of the clay.


Smaller beakers are often characterised by punched, stamped and incised decoration. These delicate vessels appear in many 17th century Spanish still-life paintings, demonstrating that bùcaros were as prized as oriental porcelain or fine glass. Contemporary sources record their use in flavouring water at banquets. They were also thought to purify polluted water and even detect poisoned liquids.

By the end of the 17th century bùcaros were coated in a white slip as well as the usual red. They were decorated with freehand designs in red, orange, blue and black. The most common form of this type was a bowl with handles set at an angle to aid the user in drinking from it. These vessels continued to be made through the 19th century.