a medium-sized bell ... altar table ... gradin ... altar cloth ... a banner ... candleholders ... processional cross ... a painted wooden cross ... ordinary single-leaved door ... image in the round of Our Lady of the [Immaculate] Conception ... a wig ... silver crown ... string of fine seed pearls ... ordinary bouquet ... painting on copper of Our Lady of Sorrows (Dolores) in a black frame ... Via Crucis in small paper prints on their little boards ... a print of the Guadalupe.[58]
Comparable versions of each of these objects occur in Abiquiú's moradas. In fact, virtually all objects found in the penitente moradas of Abiquiú are recorded as typical artifacts by church inventories and house wills of 18th- and 19th-century Spanish New Mexico.[59]
Oratory in the East Morada.—In the rear of the oratory of the older east morada (Figure 12), one sees a stove and lantern on the right. Both are imported, extracultural items. The pierced, tin candle-lantern (Figure 29) is a common artifact found throughout Europe and America.[60]
Figure 29. Candle Lantern. Size: 30.5 centimeters high. Date: 19th century. Origin: Imported to New Mexico. Location: East morada, chapel. Manufacture: Pierced tinwork.
Along the walls of the oratory hang imported religious prints framed in local punch-decorated tinwork. Tin handicraft became more widespread after 1850 when metal U.S. Army containers became available to the Hispanos. Designs seen on three tin frames (Figure 30) include twisted columns, crests, scallops, corner blocks, wings, and a variety of simple repoussé patterns. Paper prints in the tin frame suggest midcentury trade contacts between northern Mexico and the Atlantic Coast. Even the Mexican War (1846-1848) did not discourage American publishers such as Currier from appealing to Mexican religious and national loyalties with lithographs of Our Lady of Guadalupe (much in the same manner as the British, after the Revolution and War of 1812, profited by selling Americans objects that bore images of Yankee ships, eagles, and likenesses of Franklin and Washington). A fourth piece of local tinwork (Figure 31) in the east morada oratory is a niche for a small figure of the Holy Child of Atocha, Santo Niño de Atocha. This advocation of Jesus, like that of His mother in the Guadalupe image, further indicates Mexican influence.[61] The image of the Atocha is a product of local craftsmanship.
Figure 30. Religious Prints in Tin Frames. Size: 52.1 centimeters high (center). Date: First three-quarters of 19th century. Origin: Prints imported to New Mexico; frames from New Mexico, unidentified tinsmiths. Location: East morada, walls in chapel (west) room. Manufacture: Tin frames: cut, repoussé, stamped and soldered into Federal and Victorian designs. Prints: left, Guadalupe, early 19th century, Mexican copperplate engraving; center, Guadalupe, 1847, N. Currier, hand-colored lithograph; right, San Gregorio [Pope St. Gregory], mid-19th-century lithograph.
Figure 31. Niche with Image of the Holy Child of Atocha (nicho and El Santo Niño de Atocha). Size: niche 44.4 centimeters high, image 21.6 high. Date: Second half of 19th century. Origin: New Mexico, unidentified tinsmith and santero. Location: East morada, wall in chapel room. Manufacture: Tin: cut, repoussé, soldered into fan, shell, and guilloche designs. Image: carved wood, gessoed and painted red and white. Rosary and artificial flowers.