Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Sican-Lambayeque, ca. 800 to 1000 CE. A silver (60% silver) kero or drinking cup decorated from top to bottom with a repeated rows of repousse star motifs. The indigenous of Peru created these vessels for more than domestic purposes. Rather they were used during life and after life at funerary ceremonies that incorporated intricate religious libations and imbibing rites. Size: 4.375" in diameter across the mouth x 6.875" H (11.1 cm x 17.5 cm); Precious metal content: 60% silver.
To create this piece, the ancient metalsmith hammered a silver piece into a very thin sheet, approximately the size of the finished work. Then the artisan used fine-grained stone anvils and hammer stones made of hematite or green porphyry, sometimes with animal hide attached, and a wooden template was used to create the form and its repoussé ornamentation, as the metalsmith hammered the silver sheet upon the wooden template.
Silver and other metal vessels were made at Cerro Huaringa, in vast smelting furnaces and workshops. People used these keros to drink chicha, a fermented drink crucial to religious and burial rites as well as ritual celebrations around planting and harvest time. Chica was made from maize, quinoa, or squash, with a local alcohol content and fermented through the use of saliva - women chewed the food and then boiled it in water, leaving the enzymes from their mouths to produce the malt for fermentation.
Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-private Hans Juergen Westermann collection, Germany
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#144356
Condition
Four small cracks. Normal surface wear and indentations commensurate with age. Silver has developed a nice age patina.