Diario las Américas Newspaper, May 2, 1954, Page 27

Collectors, hunting all about the ,oped by the sons of the soil. The main traveled roads of South Ame- | soldiers who accompanied Cortés rica, and especially up and down | the west coast, have for many | years acquired, amongst other tre- asures of colonial and precolonial | days, plentiful examples of hand- wrought silverware. This South American silver to- day adorns shelves and cupboards | and curio tables; it is legilimately regarded as a collecto’s prize. Yet, not so long ago, the majority of these pieces were not regarded and were not used as ornaments | or even as household treasures. | They were the common domestic pots and pans, dishes and bowls and plates, ash trays, drinking cups and tankards of -daily use in all the countries of Spanish America. | Rarely will you find a piece of | silverware of Spanish-American or- | igin which was intended merely as an ofnament. The little flower | vases and bric-a-brae of today had no place in the home, while silver was as too commonplace to be used for the personal jewelry of aristocra- tic ladies. Not that trouble was spared in the making and decoration of these house-hold utensils. The time of the handicraftsman was of no ac- count; he might spend long weeks and months on the fashioning of a pair of silver stirrups or a box for mate or other tea, or for many kinds of spices, adorning his work with beautiful and intricate sprays of upstanding flowers; richly wro- ught candlesticks of that spacious period frequently represent the skilled labor of months. But many. a rich and politically important family of colonial days maintain- ed their own silversmiths, family servants whose rank and value sto- od high. A metal worker was as mucha necessity as the carpenter and baker. The expert worker of silver, gold, and jewels was en- trusted with the creation as the beauty and delicacy of some of the chains, brooches, and earrings | made in Spanish-America betwe- | en the early sixteenth and early | nineteenth centuries render such pieces the prize of the collector | -today. The degree of wealth in precious metals of certain regions not in- frequently brought about and es- tablished permanently their poli- tical importance. Thus the shining | treasures of Mexico, in silver and gold, the rich ores and emeralds and pearls of “Cartagena de las | Indias” (now in Colombia), the gold and silver of Upper and Low- | er Pert, inevitably brought popula- | tion and created markets, leading to the establishment of viceregal courts and all the panoply of civil and religious authority. Such citi- es as Cartagena, Panama, Mexico and Lima were thronged, wealthy, | full of movement; the great houses of the rich folk and officials were | strong and self-supporting enough te stand a siege. These were of the “patios” type, built with thick stone walls; the eyes of the inha- bitants turned inward to the cen- tral courts and gardens. A house of any pretensions would possess at least three patios, leading from each other and entered only from the first with its great main zagu- an door. The living rooms of the family centered about the first domestics filled the next; stables, men would occupy the third. But in great establishments the patios would extend even farther, and the serving men, maids and cooks, the array of tailors, leatherworkers and wood and metal craftsmen, created something like a private village. PRE-SPANISH METAL WORKERS In metal working as in may other handicrafts the skilled Spani- ard from overseas had something, but not everything, to teach to the Indians, the native folk who were his assistants and pupils. For long before the Spanish conquest bro- ught the arts of Europe to the Americas there had existed old and masterly handicrafts, slowly devel- | to Mexico have recorded their ama- | zement at the beauty and intricary | of the ornaments fabricated by the | Aztec craftsmen who wrought in gold and silver and whose shining | wares were displayed in the great | market places near old Tenochti- tlan, the city in the lake that pre- ceded modern Mexico City. The his- torian and captain Bernal Diaz jhas left a description of one of these markets in his “Cenquest of New Spain.” “Let us go on and speak of the | skilled workmen Montezuma em- |ployed in every craft that was practiced among them. We will begin with lapidaries and workers in gold and silver and ajl the hol- low work which even the great |goldsmiths of Spain were forced | to admire, and of these there were ja great vasa of the best in a in some regions considered | DOMINGO, 2 DE MAYO DE 1954 Wrenous Work of Seth hiniticin “Gaeerswithe town named Atzcapotzaleo, a le-, ague from Mexico. For working precious stones and chalchihuites, | which are like emeralds, there were other great artists.” These workers in precious me- | tals were so skilled that they could make little metal birds with movy- able wings, fish with movable scal- es, and delicate filigree ornaments tities were these produced that thousands were melted down by |early sixteenth century and made | into chains for convenience in| |has been for 400 years fed by these ancient ornaments, and there | still remain considerable numbers. | If Mexico and Centfal America | with their arts and crafts of the Maya and the Aztecs. yielded great | stores of treasure, of gold and sil-| ver ornaments made by native ar- ‘Eighteenth century maté cups HEMISFERIO made with fine wire. In such quan- | the conquering Spaniards in the | carrying. In fact, the melting pot | tists, still greater stores were se- |ized when the rich lands below | |Panama came under Spanish con- trol. The region that is now the} {Republic of Colombia was (and is) rich in gold, elaborated by ee} old Chibcha craftsmen into a wide | range of fine ornaments worn by | chiefs and nobles. South of Colom- | |bia stretches the vast tangle of | |afforested and mountainous coun- \try where nature has sown preci- ous and useful minerals with a lavish hand, and where, in the | huge silver hi ll of Px otosi, was one | lof the world’s great storehouses | jof this beautiful metal. The moonlight sheen of silver, | lits soft and yet brillian luster, and | \its many virtues as a metal, seem | ito have attracted the attention, of | | the most simple-living as well as | \the most highly advanced tribes | all over the world. This metal in | | good scene is second only %, ;closed and guarded; SSBE€6S5 3 gold and has always been one of the first to be used and admired. \1t will tannish, while gold retains its undimmed and imperishable be- | auty through every kind of vicis- situde, but it is a sweet, clean metal which has always endeared itself to mankind. Not to speak of womankind, for what housewife lives who is not conscious of glow- {ing price when she surveys upon |fine silver of authentic purity |lovely luster? If her treasures ar and e really old silver, most beautiful jhen it is worn, so much the bet- | ter. ANCIENT ORNAMENTS The charm of silver had been jrealized in South America long before the conquest. The metal was reserved, with its high com- panion, gold, for private use. There jwas no trade value. Probably no one but rulers and great officials owned golden and silver ornament and the service of the gods cer- tainly claimed great quantities. For instance, the great Temple of the Sun at Cuzco was radiant in the interior from the light reflected from golden plates covering the worked stones of the walls. There were moons of silver and suns of gold; and in one of the gardens of the Inca of Peru all the trees pieogepis pue ajqe} suluIp iy and flowers were wrought of silver and gold, cunningly made so that a light breeze moved the delicate leaves. And when Pizarro held the Inca Atahualpa to ransom, demand- ing that a certain room should be filled to the height of a man with gold, immense quantities of beau- tiful ornaments were piled in shin- ing heaps in the hope, scandalous- ly betrayed, of saving the semi- divien Lord of Peru. Finding thus, in the Americas, guilds ef native craftsmen who had an ancient tradition of gold and silver working, the European new- comer in many regions had little to do except to place new patterns and models before the subjugated artist. The Spaniard needed plates and dishes for his table, so pre- sently the South American metal worker, taught by alien masters, hammered out scores and hun- i dreds of the delightful pieces still serving in many regions. Peru and Bolivia yet contain myan of these excellent examples; Colombia and Chile and Ecuador also, of course; Argentina and Paraquay possess ing no mines, gradually acquired precious metals by exchange. Here at the door, almost to be had for the picking up, was silver, and therefore domestic utensils, as well as pieces of special equipment, were wrought of this metal. Cook- ing pots, kitchen bowls, dishes, and serving plates and cups, as well as spoons and forks; stirrups, spurs, horse trappings; dainty ewers, washing basins, jugs for every sort of domestic purpose. From the | silversmith’s bench came an assort- ment of articles to fill the needs of kitchen, dining room, bedroom, boudoir and stable. Silver was more readily accessible than tin or iron, | could be easily obtained in regions- where an imported rarity, and it served a myriad of purposes. The Spanish-American house of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies may have been jealously en- but it was enriched and made lovely with carved furniture, with gilded and | brightly colored leather work, with tiles and pottery and silks brought from the Orient; and throughout its spacious rooms there shone the moonlight gleam of silver mirrors, silver braziers with their glow of hot charcoal, silver dishes on the dining table, reflected in the soft rays of candles held in silver scon- ces. Mome comfortable, modern methods, with the turning of an electrie switch for light and warm- th? Jam not so sure, The age of silver had, too, its comforts, and added to comfort its charm and splendor,