Artists inscribed their signatures on painted pots and stone sculptures.

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Their products were banned from the American market, where their hand-painted beauty could fetch much higher prices than in rural Mexico, where the pots were merely a practicality.

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Two establishments stood nearby: a redbrick pub with pretty clumps of lavender growing in the window pots and, on the other side of the green, a luridly painted fish-and-chip van.

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