Marble Coasters Inspired by Tiles from the Church of San Agustin

These brightly painted and glazed tiles are examples of ceramics broadly known as Talavera, produced in the Puebla region of central Mexico. In 1909, American artist Dodge Macknight was traveling around Mexico and acted as Isabella's agent to purchase the tiles directly from the church. After acquiring the tiles, Isabella spent hours assembling the nearly 2,000 painted and glazed tiles into the pattern we see today on the walls of the Spanish Cloister.

Gift at the Gardner took the designs from these Spanish tiles and created Italian marble coasters.