Celedonio Pereda (1860–1941), Buenos Aires, late 19th–early 20th century (likely from the Palacio Pereda, today Embassy of Brazil); by inheritance to his son Jorge Pereda (1907–1982), Buenos Aires, 1941; by inheritance to his son Jorge Pereda Bullrich (d. 2017); Saráchaga Auctions, Buenos Aires, May 14, 2013, lot 663; Jaime Eguiguren Art & Antiques, Buenos Aires, 2013; LACMA, 2019.

Spanish American furnishings veneered in tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl designs are known as enconchados. The term derives from the application of small sheets of mother-of-pearl (concha de perla) on wooden surfaces. Because of their materials and decorative schemes, the works have been slippery to categorize. Scholars have suggested that they were imported aboard the famous Manila Galleons that traveled annually to the port of Acapulco in Mexico, from where the objects were distributed throughout Spanish America. Some experts have argued that their profusion in Lima suggests local manufacture, possibly with the involvement of Asian artisans. Archival and material documentation, however, seems to suggests that the works originated in Guatemala City, where mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell were harvested locally and considered a prized commodity. Many works made of these materials were exported to Mexico and Peru. The designs draw on a range of European and Asian sources, which local artists creatively reinterpreted.

In Lima, intricately decorated side tables and matching sewing boxes were displayed in the sitting room or parlor (salón de estrado), a domestic space for women. The parlor served as a gathering or private place for the ladies of the house, who reclined on pillows and tapestries instead of sitting on chairs.

From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entries by Ilona Katzew and Luis Eduardo Wuffarden in the accompanying publication, cats. nos. 67–71, pp. 275–87)