Birds of a feathers. That's what they were. Pictures of birds fabricated out of their own plumage. They were both strange and bizarre, just they were so wild with colors that they provoked me to end and stare at the display at the auction house.

I showtime encountered this artwork a couple years ago at showtime ane sale house and so a few others. And then, information technology seemed to have disappeared. Until recently, when an auction firm was selling a long wall of plumage art pieces in various sizes, obviously someone'southward drove.

Mexican feather art.
A blue-feathered peacock and a bird with green feathers in the collection.

The pieces were hanging on the wall and stacked on the floor under a table, and in that location were so many of them. Whoever created the art – I don't recall if they were signed – used the cute reds and yellows and blues and fuchsia of feathers from the tails and bodies of the birds. They were the colors of paints in an creative person's palette and were used in much the same fashion.

The birds' legs and beaks – along with tree branches and other elements in the artwork – appeared to accept been painted.

I wondered if the owner had also hung the pieces or stored them away someplace. They were not covered in dust – which happened sometimes when a collector seemed to have lost interest or the wherewithal to dust them – and appeared to have been cared for. Most were in the same type of carved wooden frames that I remembered, indicating that these frames were commonly used with this fine art.

Mexican feather art.
Rows of feather fine art hanging on a wall at the auction house.

Knowing petty well-nigh feather art – I wasn't even sure what information technology was called – I went sleuthing. Tons of it were selling on the web, labeled as Mexican folk art or Mexican Feathercraft. Ane retail seller had two pieces that were identified as "Souvenir of Panama" and "Made in United mexican states" with a date of 1942 written in pencil.

The all-time of feather art dates dorsum to Aztec artisans earlier the Spanish conquest of the nation in the 16th century, and connected long afterward, according to the 1919 Encyclopedia Americana. These artists were highly regarded, and children began training early on every bit craftsmen. The feathers themselves were sold at markets and were equally priceless as gold.

The Spanish invaders were specially impressed with the plume mosaics – small-scale images created with feathers – of which but a few still exist.

Mexican feather art.
This bird in the orange and xanthous feathers seems to have its breast stuck out proudly.

Craftsmen "painted in feathers, producing the living colors of nature," every bit one witness – patently a Spaniard – described the work, according to the encyclopedia. The Aztecs had produced elaborate plume draperies, tapestries and more. Once "converted," they created mosaics of the saints of the Catholic Church, among other items, the witness noted.

The feathers were plucked from the Aztec-prized and honoredQuetzal bird (with permission), forth with several species of hummingbirds and herons considering of their brilliantly colored feathers.

Some plumage artwork is nonetheless being washed today. I'm sure that a lot of it is the stuff I saw at auction and purchased primarily equally tourist art. Virtually of the ones I saw on the spider web seemed to be from the 1940s and 1950s.

Mexican feather art.
Several birds from the collection, set against natural scenes in different poses.

In some cultures, feathers represented power, wealth, fertilityand currency, and were used in ceremonial rituals, co-ordinate to a 2007 Los Angeles Times commodity about plumage art and an exhibit that was opening there. Two years later, an exhibition in Mexico City was set to feature 120 feather mosaics made in the 16th and 17th centuries, according to the newspaper. An sale at Christie's in 2003 included a religious plume mosaic from 1560 that was estimated at $45,000 to $55,000, but did not sell.

Virtually feather pieces – whether washed past Mexicans, Native Americans or others – are so delicate that many institutions that ain them are reluctant to allow them to travel to shows, according to the newspaper commodity. They also attract insects that can be merely as bedeviling.

After learning the history, I had a greater appreciation for the mosaics and the old art of feathers. Only I'thousand yet non likewise keen on the 20th-century souvenirs. One person noted in answer to a question on the web that the art was too "kitschy" to exist nonetheless appreciated. I agree. You have to be the right sort of person to desire ane hanging in your abode or to collect hundreds of them.

Mexican feather art.
2 birds in brilliant orange and reddish feathers with plumes.