"Sahumador". Deer-shaped, silver filigree incense burner in chased and embossed cast silver. Colonial School. Peru. ...

"Sahumador". Deer-shaped, silver filigree incense burner in chased and embossed cast silver. Colonial School. Peru. Late 18th century.
20,5 x 18 x 15 cm.
These examples, as is typical with this type of piece, depict a four-legged animal lying on a tray. The head is made of cast silver and the body is made of silver filigree, with threads that form floral compositions based on radial petals. On the back there is a hinged lid which hides a small pan in its interior, which is used for burning the fragrant substances which are dispersed through the perforation on the body, as the incense burner was a domestic item that was used to perfume rooms.
As Cristina Esteras Martín notes in "Platería del Perú Virreinal 1535 - 1825" (Viceroyalty Peruvian silversmithing 1535 - 1825) "These incense burners "are very significant because, although they were not exclusive to this Viceroyalty, this classification of structure and shape is. They were made of cast silver and filigree and they took very varied forms, from spherical recipients to pomegranates, pumpkins, pineapples, lions, roosters, deer, turkeys, doves and llamas. In most cases the recipient rests on a tray or plate known as a mancerina which the ash from the embers drops onto."
Incense burners that are comparable to this one are, for example, the one which is currently exhibited in "Tornaviaje Arte Iberoamericano en España", in the Prado in Madrid, those which are kept in the Museo de América in Madrid, in the Isaac Fernández Blanco Museum of Hispano-American Art in Buenos Aires, the one in the collection at the Museo Pedro de Osma in Lima, and the one that is in the shape of a llama rather than a deer which is in the Isaac Fernández Blanco Museum of Hispano-American Art in Buenos Aires.

Bibliographic references:
- "Tornaviaje Arte Iberoamericano en España". Museo Nacional del Prado, 2021 - 2022. Page 249
- "Platería del Perú Virreinal 1535 - 1825". Cristina Esteras Martín. Catalogue of the Exhibition in the Museo Nacional of Lima, 1997. Pages 290 - 295.