What are the origins of Mexican furniture in Britain?
It is perhaps surprising that a furniture style from a country with no strong historical, geographical or cultural links with Britain should have become so immensely popular. In trying to understand why this should be, it is worth considering the history of both countries. Mexico is immediately to the south of the USA and was originally populated and governed by indigenous civilisations such as the Olmec, the Maya and the Aztecs (none of whom had Mexican chests of drawers!). In 1521 the country was colonised by Spain and remained under Spanish rule until, 300 years later in 1821, it gained its independence.
After three centuries as a part of the Spanish Empire it is hardly surprising that the country acquired many of the trappings of its European rulers. These included the obvious, such as language, and the less obvious such as a similarity in the style of furniture - perhaps even including Mexican chests of drawers. Research into Spanish Colonial furniture styles shows that it has many similarities to that of Mexican furniture. In Mexico the style was embellished or adapted with, for example, the use of bold metal hinges and metal fittings designed to show off Mexico’s skills in metalworking.
It is perhaps surprising to realise that, when Mexico gained its independence in 1821, its territory included Texas, California, Wyoming, Idaho, Oklahoma, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. These territories were all lost to the USA during the 19th Century and then in the 1860s Mexico was again invaded and colonised, this time by the French.
Spanish or Mexican chest of drawers?
Why is this history relevant to Mexican furniture in Britain today? Well there are two reasons: the undoubted Spanish influence on the style of Mexican furniture and the subsequent French influence that may well have been responsible for encouraging Mexican furniture to be painted. Surely, Mexican furniture is not painted? Well it is certainly true that the conventional wisdom is that Mexican furniture should not be painted, but research in America suggests this might have come about due more to a misunderstanding than anything else.
During the 18th and 19th Centuries, many Europeans had a fondness for painting their furniture and not just in white, but in a host of different colours including reds and blues. The American research indicates this habit or tradition was also common in Mexico. Mexican chests of drawers at this time might possibly have been in a rich scarlet or red colour. However, the researcher suggests that as this furniture grew old and was replaced, many Mexicans simply put their old, painted, furniture in any convenient place outside.
The dry Mexican climate helped preserve this old furniture and the combined effects of sun and wind sandblasted off old paintwork and bleached the timbers. When, in the 1950s, American tourists began travelling to Mexico they discovered this distressed, bare wood furniture and taking it to be ‘traditional’ Mexican furniture they bought it from locals to furnish their own homes in the USA. This, it is suggested, created the myth that Mexican furniture was typically rustic and had a rough, bleached appearance.
Now while this would explain the existence of Mexican furniture in the United States of America, it does not explain its popularity in the UK. Britain’s overseas cultural influences would have come from its own colonies, dependencies’, protectorates and so forth. This would explain African or Indian influences but Britain’s interests in South America were pretty much limited to the Bahamas, British Honduras, British Guiana and the West Indies.
The influence of America on consumers
There are at least two possible explanations: one is that Mexican furniture in the UK arose as a consequence of American influences on consumers. In other words, the USA has given Britain so many style and design icons, from denim jeans to bubble gum and Cocoa Cola, that a liking for their taste in furniture was a logical progression. The other theory is related to the introduction in Britain of cheap package holidays in the 1960s. For the first time, many British people would have travelled abroad on holiday – particularly to Spain. Once there, it is possible that enjoyment of the place and its surroundings might perhaps have spawned a desire for emulate the Spanish look for interiors on returning home.
Some support is lent to this idea by the fact that, in the 1970s, many bungalows were built in the UK with Spanish-style architectural features. The Spanish, in common with many other parts of Europe, had stopped painting their furniture long before this time so any shrewd furniture importer could have seen the similarity between Spanish and Mexican-style furniture and taken matters on from there - hence a UK market for Mexican chests of drawers!