Enquiry about object: 8698
South American Colonial Silver Bowl Chased with Cacao Pods
Colonial South America 18th-19th century
width: 16.8cm, height: 10.8cm, weight: 429g
Provenance
UK art market
This fine, squat, hemispherical bowl, is chased finely with a band about the top that is decorated with fecund South American bounty, such as grapes, gourds, flowers and cacao pods (from which chocolate is made) all against a tooled background. The rest of the body is plain, providing a pleasing contrast with the decorative band at the rim. It is most likely that the bowl was used to hold and serve a chocolate drink.
Two handles have been applied to either side of the bowl.
A small indentation mark on the underside of the bowl was made by the silversmith so he could swing his compass around to cut out a perfect circle of silver that could then be raised to make this bowl.
The bowl has no maker’s or assay marks and so it is difficult to be precise about its origins, but it is definitely from Iberian Colonial South America, and possibly from Peru.
The bowl is in excellent condition.
References
Davis Boylan, L., Spanish Colonial Silver, Museum of New Mexico Press, 1974.
de Lavalle, J.A. & W. Lang, Arte y Tesoros del Peru: Plateria Virreynal, Banco de Credito del Peru en la Cultura, 1974.
