Table perfume burner in silver gilt decorated roundels and groteques.

Table perfume burner in silver gilt with decorated roundels and groteques. Sandcast. Openwork lid.

There are no marks to identify origin or maker. Initially, it was thought to be of Spanish craftsmanship, but similarities with a perfume burner belonging to the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid suggest that it is Mexican. If this is the case then it perhaps needs to be dated as later than 1520, since styles were diffused throughout the colonies 25-50 years after their development on the Continent.
This perfume burner was purchased from the London silversmiths SJ Phillips in 1979.
If, as seems likely, this piece was made in Mexico, it offers important evidence of how pre-colonial styles were altered in the wake of the Spanish Conquest. Contemporary Mexican chroniclers report on the popularity of Pre-Columbian metalwork that furnished lavish dining services. Following the arrival of the Europeans, the presence of a silver-gilt object, emulating both form and style from Renaissance Europe would have alluded to the status and wealth of its owner. Certain elements of style, such as the medallions with contemporary heads, suggest that Mexican craftsmen were not altogether immediately comfortable with the new styles introduced to them. What we see here is a hybrid object.

Perfume incense burners were popular items in the Renaissance. There were those that were small enough to be attached to a person's clothes and so wafting smells of spices and incense around the body. The form of this perfume burner suggests that it was made to be placed on a table: from the elaborately carved feet to the relative size of this object. Throughout the Renaissance, it was popular belief that one means for the spread of disease was through miasma. At a time when the plague was a recurring event, the use of perfume burners to remove the danger of foul smells was very important.

A perfume burner was a popular item in Renaissance Europe. This particular one was made to be placed on a table (as is evident from the carved feet and its size), but there were those that could be attached to a person's clothes. This perfume burner is made of two distinct parts: the bottom section would house incense or other materials to be burned; and the top half would act as a receptacle for the smoke, which then diffused around the room. Perfume burners were important objects in the Renaissance as people believed that disease was spread through foul air.

M.62-1980