The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-01-11


ence over the national economic life
of great many of the Latin Amer
lean countries, silver has produced in
the Western Hemisphere an art in
its own right: silversmithing.
If silver is considered not as a
monetary metal but as a medium
for turning out useful and beautiful
objects, it may be said to have been
the source of some of the most ar
tistic work done on our continent.
Long before the Spanish conquest
the art of silversmithing was known
to the natives of Peru and Mexico.
When Pizarro made prisoner the
Inca Atahualpa, he was offered
roomful of gold and silver objects in
exchange for the liberty of the In
dian chief.
The conqueror accepted the propo-
sition only to kill the Inca once he
had made himself master of his
riches. The loot was Immediately
shipped to Spain where an important
part of it became the property of
Pizarro himself.
The Indians, of course, worked
metals in a rather crude way; after
breaking up the raw mineral into
small pieces with hard black slick
stones, they piled it into small spe-
cially constructed earthenware fur
naces which were placed on top of
an elevation that the wind might
fan their flames during the night.
The sight of all the little fires
burning brightly on the crest OF
some Andean hill must have been
quite a colorful spectacle!
The introduction of alloys and the
actual silversmithing were obtained
through other similarly crude meth
DDS. Peru was one of the most
advanced centers for the production
of silverwork in pre-Columbian
America, and the very excellence OF
this production added to the greed
of the conquerors in taking back
with them the beautiful pieces turned
out by the natives.
Because Spanish galleons sailed
forth from the coasts of South
America loaded to the sinking line
with gold and silver treasures, there
remain in Peru itself very few au'
thentic pieces of the period before
the conquest. Most of those that are
still in Peru were funeral offerings
recently unearthed from Inca tombs
In Mexico, Herman Cortes found the
art of silversmithing had been flour
ishing long before white men evel
landed in the new world, and tha'
the Aztecs possessed silver and golC
in an abundance which staggered th'
imagination of a sixteenth centur!
| European.
1t is interesting to note that il
was because the Spaniards did not
have the physical endurance to worl
| the mines, that the Indian wa:
spared to become today one of the
most important factors of the racia
structure of Mexico.
With the first settlers from Spair
| to the new continent, there came not
only beautiful pieces of Spanish sill
yer, but also the silversmiths who
| had made them. The newcomers
were in some sort returning the
call' of Indian silver to Spain and
thus providing the necessary compe-
tition and impetus to the continuance
of silversmithing in the colonies.
Indian craftsmen, while retaining
their original virility, were soon to
show the influence of the colonial
period, one which lasted more than
three centuries and was contempor-
| aneous with the elimination of the
Renaissance and the development OF
the Baroque period, these trends, be-
ing, of course, reflected in the silver
objects of the time.
The Spaniards soon promulgated
| in their colonies their European reg
ulations governing silversmiths
among them the payment of the
Kings fifth, the registering of marks
and the rule of pure blood which
limited the right of silversmithing t.
Spaniards or Creoles.
These laws were not always en-
forced; they were even sometimes en-
tirely disregarded, thanks to which
the vigorous bestizo (half-breed) art
made its appearance.
While European motifs such as the
Austrian eagle and the pomegranatt
were used by Indian craftsmen whC
also adopted some oriental designs
brought across the Pacific from Ma
nila, they introduced their own in
digenous motifs of llamas, turkeys
monkeys and impaired to most oi
their creations a more solid, robust
and restrained feeling than would
have been expected in their times.
Here too, as in most artistic mani
festations of colonial times, the psy
Geological element of revolt and in
dependence from the mother country
is present. 1t finds its expression il
simpler and more vigorous form thar
those used by the Spaniards.
Silverware eventually became
cheaper than porcelain in most of the
Latin American colonies and was