Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

The World Cultures collection at Bristol includes Ethnography and Egyptology. The Ethnography collection contains about 12,000 items, dating from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. This is a regionally significant collection, with some material of international importance. Major areas represented are West Africa, Central Africa, North America, Central America and the Pacific. Smaller collections exist for North, East and Southern Africa, South America, Asia and Europe.
One outstanding collection is the archive of paintings produced by the Victorian traveller Adela Breton: its importance lies in the exact copies of wall paintings of Mexican temples, where the originals are now almost entirely lost. [The collection of Breton paintings, on transparency, are currently being digitised to provide online access].

Quarter-scale copy of the wall painting by Adela Breton on the south west wall, Upper Temple of the Jaguars

There are a few Maya and Aztec pieces in the Breton collection. The Maya are represented through the paintings from Chichén Itzá and of ceramics in museum collections. The Aztec pieces include ceramic bowls and the heads of small mould-made figurines.The collections from elsewhere in Central and South America include ancient ceramics from Belize and contemporary Guatemalan costume and weaving equipment. [Krystyna Deuss, whose book Indian Costumes from Guatemala is a classic resource in this area - follow link below - researched the collection at Bristol some years ago.]

Back-strap loom with natural dye colours, from women’s weaving co-operative, San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala, 2010