Description
Coloured lithograph by C. Empson, 1836.
"The tenement represented in this sketch is variously denominated, according to the purposes to which it is applied: when the building is attached to a mansion, it is a cocina, or kitchen; when only used as an occasional residence, it is termed ranchero, or hut; and if constantly occupied by a family who have no other dwelling, it is called caseta, or villager's cottage. This was our kitchen, store-room, and housekeeper's apartment. The kitchen was partially open to admit the light, and facilitate the escape of the smoke: the furniture was entirely of domestic manufacture. There were coarse dishes of earthenware in great abundance; large stones placed like tripods, for burning charcoal; flappers of palm-leaves for fanning the fire ; brooms of the fragant heliotrope for sweeping the floor; immense jars of porous clay for cooling water; bowls formed of the rind of melons; cups made of cocoa-nut shell; spoons of the bulimeos shell or orange-tree wood; basins formed of the calabash; petecas, or boxes for tobacco, and trunks of flexible bark for tomatos. A large flat stone, resting on a stump of the cactus, was provided with a polished conical piece of granite, for crushing coffee, or preparing chocolate, by bruising the cocoa-nut, and mixing it with sugar and cinnamon. " (Empson. loc. cit.)
Inscription: The cocina or kitchen Fourth narrative
Image Licence
CC BY 4.0
Image Credit
image courtesy of Wellcome Library, London
Location
Santa Ana, Mariquita, Tolima, Colombia
Country
Colombia
Medium
Print
Tags
Category
Buildings & Architecture
TWW Comment
See: https://archive.org/stream/narrativessouth00empsgoog/narrativessouth00empsgoog_djvu.txt and also a related, later painting of the mines at Santa Ana, in the province of Mariquita (now Tolima) https://www.wdl.org/en/item/9138/ Plus David Zuck's analysis of Empson's narrative.
