Unidentified artists
Herb Box (Yerbera)circa 1775-1790

Not on view

Highly worked silver casket with domed, ribbed lid, bulging body decorated in relief with figures amid acanthus scrollwork, standing on four claw-and-ball feet

Silver casket with domed lid, raised on four scrolled feet, covered in high-relief repoussé work; the lid features acanthus scrolls and a central shell motif, the body decorated with dancing figures and putti amid foliate arabesques on an octagonal bombé form.

Silver casket with bombé form and domed lid, raised on four figural legs with ball-and-claw feet; body decorated with repoussé acanthus scrollwork and grotesque masks; lid with radiating shell motifs and figural ornament in high relief.

Silver casket with hinged lid open, revealing a plain interior divided by a central bar. Exterior decorated with densely repoussé scrolling acanthus foliage, figural scenes, and a shell motif on the lid interior. Small figurine finial at top; claw feet at base.

Silver casket with hinged lid open, revealing a repoussé interior with shell and acanthus motifs; exterior decorated with dense foliate and figural relief work, raised on four claw feet, with a small finial at the lid's apex.

Silver casket with octagonal form, lid decorated with deeply repoussé radiating shell or fan motif surrounded by scrolling acanthus leaves, dense foliate relief along borders and sides, resting on small feet.

Close-up of a silver repoussé vessel, featuring a small running figure in period costume amid cornucopias, foliage, and berries, with engraved scrollwork along the lower border.

Close-up detail of a silver object with engraved Latin-script inscription reading "Melch, a a / Cabr," beside a rectangular rivet plate with two raised bosses; elaborately cast foliate and figural decoration visible at left edge.

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Herb Box (Yerbera)
Place Made: Upper Peru, possibly Potosí
Date Made: circa 1775-1790
Medium: Cast, repoussé, and chased silver
Dimensions: 9 13/16 × 11 × 7 7/8 in. (25 × 28 × 20 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2020.159
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Silver was closely associated with empire building in the early modern world. In 1545, the Spaniards found the world’s richest silver deposit, the Rich Hill of Potosí (in present-day Bolivia), fueling a silverwork bonanza. Intricate objects such as this shell-shaped box signaled the wealth of viceregal society. Inspired by foreign prototypes, the container is ornamented with an artificial hunt or mock battle on the back, while the charming quirquincho (Andean hairy armadillo) on the lid lends an unmistakable local flavor. This type of box was used to store leaves of the popular yerba maté tea, as well as other substances, which accounts for its interior compartments.

From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew with Rachel Kaplan in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 84, pp. 326–30)
Provenance: Convento de las Monjas Capuchinas, Buenos Aires; Antonio Pérez Valiente de Moctezuma (b. Granada, Spain, 1895, d. Buenos Aires, 1980), Buenos Aires; Horacio Porcel (1933–2016), Buenos Aires, late 1960s; Eguiguren Arte de Hispanoamérica (Javier Eguiguren), Buenos Aires, 2020; LACMA, 2020.
Selected 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.
Ilona Katzew, “Special Things: Boxes in Spanish America,” Unframed, July 20, 2022, https://unframed.lacma.org/2022/07/20/special-things-boxes-spanish-america.
Selected Exhibition History: Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

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