Peruvian Silver Filigree Turkey Censor

Parcel-Gilt Silver Filigree Turkey-Form Incense Burner (Sahumador)

This incense burner in the form of an extravagant turkey executed almost entirely in silver filigree work. The head, the chain that is attached to the bird’s forehead, the double band around the turkey’s middle, the feet, and the side of the circular platform on which the turkey stands all are gold plated.

Incense burners in the shape of a turkey are not unusual among nineteenth century Peruvian burners but examples with parcel gilding are relatively uncommon.

The turkey is in two halves, with the top half lifting back but being hinged to the bottom half, to reveal the interior where the burning incense can be placed.

The turkey stands on a round platform inset with filigree and this in turn sits on a filigree dish with scalloped edges. The dish stands on three cast zoomorphic silver feet. The turkey’s gilded claws are particularly naturalistically rendered.

Silver filigree work was introduced to South America by colonial Spanish and Portuguese. There had already been a strong legacy of silver and gold usage in South America, both metals being mined and worked locally for local rulers. The Incas evocatively referred to gold as ‘ the sweat of the sun’ and silver as the ‘tears of the moon’.

This item is possibly from Ayucucho, a small central Peruvian city founded by the Spanish in 1544 and which became a centre for silver filigree production. Other silver filigree incense burners in the form of turkeys are known to have come from Ayucucho.

Similar examples of Peruvian silver filigree incense burners in the shape of a turkey are illustrated in Luis Ribera & Schenone (1981, p. 299), de Lavalle & Lang (1974, p. 109), and Taullard (2004).

de Lavalle, J.A. & W. Lang, Plateria Virreynal: Arte Y Tesoros del Peru, Banco de Credito del Peru an la Cultura, 1974.

Luis Ribera, A., & H.H. Schenone,

Plateria Sudamericana de los Siglos XVII-XX, Hirmer Verlag Muchen, 1981.

Taullard, A.,

Plateria Sudamericana, Ediciones Espuela de Plata, 2004.

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