Coconut-Shell Cup (Coco chocolatero)

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Coconut-Shell Cup (Coco chocolatero)

Mexico or Guatemala, 17th-18th century
Furnishings; Serviceware
Polished and engraved coconut shell and silver
5 1/4 × 4 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (13.3 × 12.1 × 6.4 cm)
Gift of Ronald A. Belkin, Long Beach, California, in memory of Charles B. Tate (M.2015.69.2)
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Estate of Lafayette “Lafe” Pence Speirs, Los Angeles; Abell Auction Company, Commerce, California, 2003; Ronald A. Belkin, Long Beach, California, 2003; LACMA, 2015.

Label

Coconut-shell cups were luxury items used for drinking hot chocolate.

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Coconut-shell cups were luxury items used for drinking hot chocolate. Cacao beans and chocolate beverages played an important role in Aztec and Maya rituals, and were mostly consumed by members of the nobility. By the seventeenth century, coconut-shell cups, used for drinking hot chocolate, were ubiquitous in the homes of viceregal society. The Spanish penchant for the precious elixir made these artifacts highly desirable exports. Many were fitted with silver bases and handles, and some were embellished with inscriptions identifying their owners, as this example that includes an inscription on the rim: "Sirvo a Doña Manuela Batres" ("I serve Doña Manuela Batres”). Although chocolate was native to the Americas, the coconut palm was introduced to Mexico from Asia in the sixteenth century.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Rachel Kaplan in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 90, pp. 338–41)
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Bibliography

  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.

Exhibition history

  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800 Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800 Nashville, TN, Frist Art Museum, October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024