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Coffer

A work made of wood, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, silver, glass, and paint.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of wood, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, silver, glass, and paint.

Date:

c. 1750

Artist:

Peruvian
Probably Lima

About this artwork

This coffer, or box, reflects a blending of designs: octagonal spice boxes from India; inlay techniques of mother-of-pearl from Japan; and in the interior, gold-painted scenes—a hut, figures, and birds in an imaginary landscape—from Chinese lacquer screens. Lima craftsmen absorbed all of these influences from the traffic of Asian goods through the Philippines and other Spanish Pacific colonies. This piece served as a receptacle for jewelry, combs, and other materials for a member of colonial Peru’s wealthy class to prepare at their toilet, a European aristocratic morning custom of formally donning dress, cosmetics, and jewelry that found its way to the Americas.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Artist

Artist unknown

Title

Coffer

Place

Lima department (Object Probably made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

c. 1725–1775

Medium

Wood, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, silver, glass, and paint

Dimensions

13.4 × 41.3 × 41 cm (5 1/4 × 16 1/4 × 16 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Neville and John H. Bryan and Roger and J. Peter McCormick endowment funds

Reference Number

2019.799

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/250531/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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