 In the 1920s, Mayer began collecting Talavera pottery from Puebla, one of the first collectors to do so.In Puebla, he was considered a bit crazy for buying all of the "old stuff" from the locals.The museum opened with the largest Puebla Talavera collection in the world with 726 pieces from the 17th to the 19th centuries and some 20th-century pieces by Enrique Luis Ventosa.