Inventory no.: 1670

Spanish Colonial Silver

SOLD

Large Spanish Colonial Silver Basin

Probably Argentina

18th century

diameter: 35.5cm, height: 6cm, weight: 1,271g

This impressively-sized basin or dish is of beaten, high-grade silver. It has a wide, tapering rim with a folded-over rim.

Similar large basins are illustrated in de Lavalle & Lang (1974, p. 161) and Luis Ribera & Schenone (1981, p. 229).

Such basins and dishes were used across Spanish colonial South America, but the shape and construction of this example suggest an eighteenth century date of manufacture and most probably an Argentinian provenance.

This basin has a wonderful patina – the silver has the ‘rawness’ of early colonial South American silver. The shape has become irregular with use, largely on account of the purity of the silver, lending the item greater sculptural presence. It is without cracks, repairs, splits or holes. The silver walls are thick and robust. The basin is heavy for its size.

References

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

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

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

Taullard, A.,

Plateria Sudemericana, Ediciones Espeula de Plata, 2004.

Provenance

European private collection

Inventory no.: 1670

SOLD