Unidentified artists
Desk18th century

Not on view

Small carved hardwood cabinet with mother-of-pearl inlay, nearly cubic form on ball feet, with dense foliate relief carving and iridescent shell inlay borders on front and side panels

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Desk
Place Made: Bolivia (possibly Moxos or Chiquitos)
Date Made: 18th century
Medium: Wood, mother-of-pearl, partial gilt, iron, and paint
Dimensions: Closed: 15 5/8 × 16 × 13 1/8 in. (39.69 × 40.64 × 33.34 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2024.155.1
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This portable writing desk, one of a pair (see M.2024.155.2), was created by Indigenous makers in the Jesuit missions (reducciones) of Moxos and Chiquitos in the Viceroyalty of Peru (in present-day Bolivia). Densely ornamented writing desks with multiple drawers derived from the Spanish escritorio or papelera. This furnishing type, originally used to store papers, eventually evolved to hold all sorts of collectibles and costly possessions and was traded as a work of art. Valued for the beauty and the dexterity with which the Indigenous makers carved the hard tropical woods and inlaid the freshwater shells, mission carpentry was highly coveted and made for prized gifts.

Located in the Amazon basin, on the fringes of the viceroyalty, Moxos and Chiquitos had become the stuff of myth. The Spaniards believed that the region was a kind of El Dorado and, beginning in the sixteenth century, made several failed forays in search of its fabled gold. The region was inhabited by different Indigenous tribes, each with their own language and traditions, whose subsistence depended on agriculture, hunting, and trade. The Jesuits first arrived in the area in 1667 as auxiliaries of Spanish colonizers based in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and over the next century established a complex network of largely self-sustaining missions, where different Indigenous groups were relocated for the purpose of evangelization and work in different types of trades.

Ilona Katzew

2024
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.
Copyright: photo © Museum Associates/LACMA, by Kristina Simonsen

Related Unframed

Unidentified artists
Desk18th century

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Desk
Place Made: Bolivia (possibly Moxos or Chiquitos)
Date Made: 18th century
Medium: Wood, mother-of-pearl, partial gilt, iron, and paint
Dimensions: Closed: 15 5/8 × 16 × 13 1/8 in. (39.69 × 40.64 × 33.34 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2024.155.1
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This portable writing desk, one of a pair (see M.2024.155.2), was created by Indigenous makers in the Jesuit missions (reducciones) of Moxos and Chiquitos in the Viceroyalty of Peru (in present-day Bolivia). Densely ornamented writing desks with multiple drawers derived from the Spanish escritorio or papelera. This furnishing type, originally used to store papers, eventually evolved to hold all sorts of collectibles and costly possessions and was traded as a work of art. Valued for the beauty and the dexterity with which the Indigenous makers carved the hard tropical woods and inlaid the freshwater shells, mission carpentry was highly coveted and made for prized gifts.

Located in the Amazon basin, on the fringes of the viceroyalty, Moxos and Chiquitos had become the stuff of myth. The Spaniards believed that the region was a kind of El Dorado and, beginning in the sixteenth century, made several failed forays in search of its fabled gold. The region was inhabited by different Indigenous tribes, each with their own language and traditions, whose subsistence depended on agriculture, hunting, and trade. The Jesuits first arrived in the area in 1667 as auxiliaries of Spanish colonizers based in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and over the next century established a complex network of largely self-sustaining missions, where different Indigenous groups were relocated for the purpose of evangelization and work in different types of trades.

Ilona Katzew

2024
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.
Copyright: photo © Museum Associates/LACMA, by Kristina Simonsen