Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Ramirez De Velazco Collection of Spanish and Inca Silver: Including a Coffer Dated 1747, a Bolivian Inca Treasure Chest Circa 1600, a Jeweled and Repoussé Silver Bénitier, a Large Incense Burner and a Bolivian Inca Crucifix From the Estancia Barrancosa
April 7, will afford collectors and others an unusual opportunity of securing rare specimens of an art which has been indigenous to the soil of Spain and her colonies from ancient times.
The nucleus of the collection has descended from generation to genera tion in an unbroken line for over three centuries, and according to family tradition the earliest objects were among the gifts presented to Francisco Ramirez de Velazco, Marquis de Salinas, an ancestor of the present owner, on his embarkation from Spain for South America in the sixteenth century, as envoy from King Philip II. These have been augmented by the many possessions of the maternal ancestors of Senor Ramirez, notably those of Bernardo Calderon, third son of Sancho, Infante of Aragon.
The beautiful objects displayed are not only characteristic of the luxury and pomp of the Spanish political families in the colonies after the conquest, but show the extraordinary skill with which the Incas, the people of the Sun, worked in the abundance of gold and silver at their disposal before their subjugation, and later, under the inquisitors and by the guidance of Spanish Renaissance and plateresque artisans. To these designs they added presentations of Inca deities and a profusion of ?oral motives from nature; thus was grafted on to the vigorous trunk of Spanish art, centuries after the assimilation of the Mudejar style, a new native stock. History had curiously repeated itself on the other Side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Of the most important objects we may refer to the extravagant repoussé and chased silver coffer, dated 1747 [no. To the interesting history of which reference is made in the catalogue; this is the finest speci men of the work of the Spanish Silversmith ever Offered at public sale in this country. A beautifully wrought silver treasure chest [no. Of Bolivian Inca craftsmanship, is reputed to have been in the possession of the Marquis de Salinas about 1600; further reference may be made to the jewelled and repoussé silver bénitier [no. 105] purchased from the convent of Las Rosas, Chile; the large Silver incense burner in the form of a turkey {no. 104] from the collection of Bernardo Calderon, and the interesting Bolivian Inca crucifix [no. 106] from the Estancia Barrancosa.
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