18th C. Peruvian Colonial Chamber Pot, Hammered Bacinica

South America, Peru, Spanish Colonial. A Spanish Colonial chamber pot (bacinica) raised by hand from silver of approximately 96 percent purity. It has a squat, rounded body, a low foot ring, and a wide, flat flange rim that rolls outward. A simple loop handle, round in section, is attached below the rim. The interior shows the silversmith's work plainly: overlapping hammer facets catch the light across the walls and base, a texture a modern spun vessel never has. The outer surface carries a soft, uneven gray patina from long handling. Pieces like this were plain domestic luxuries. In a viceroyalty sitting on some of the richest silver deposits in the world, even the humblest household vessels could be made of precious metal. In the Viceroyalty of Peru, silver from Potosi and other Andean mines was everywhere. Contemporary travelers noted that wealthy households in Lima and Cuzco used silver for objects that Europeans would have made in pewter, earthenware, or wood, including braziers, basins, stirrups, and chamber pots. Silver chamber pots, called bacines or bacinicas, show up in colonial household inventories and dowry lists, where their value was often counted by weight. Much Peruvian domestic silver has no marks. By law, raw silver was supposed to pay the quinto real, the royal fifth, and finished work was supposed to be assayed and stamped. In practice, a great deal of silver was worked privately and never marked. As a result, unmarked pieces are usually dated by their form, how they were made, and their metal content rather than by hallmarks. Hand-raising, visible hammer work, and high-purity silver, often above sterling standard, are typical of colonial Andean workshops. Item # 205509

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