Lot 300

Andean Silvered Coquera, Figural Legs & Repousse Body, ex-Holler & Saunders

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Lot 300
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Andean Silvered Coquera, Figural Legs & Repousse Body, ex-Holler & Saunders
Andean Silvered Coquera, Figural Legs & Repousse Body, ex-Holler & Saunders
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Andean Silvered Coquera, Figural Legs & Repousse Body, ex-Holler & Saunders

Estimate: $1,200 - $1,800

Current Bid: $600

(1 Bid)
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 11, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

South America, Andean region (Bolivia or Peru), Republican period., ca. 1866 - 1933 CE. A lidded coquera of silvered nickel silver, wrought in repousse and chasing by the silversmiths of the Andean highlands, where the cultivation, exchange, and sacramental sharing of coca leaves has organized daily life and ritual since long before the arrival of European metalworking traditions. Vessels of this type, made to hold the dried leaves of Erythroxylum coca, served as both household implement and emblem of standing in the Republican-era homes of Bolivia and Peru, where criollo and mestizo families combined indigenous practice with the decorative idioms of post-colonial Europe. Size: 11.8" W x 10.4" H x 9" D (30.0 cm W x 26.4 cm H x 22.9 cm D)

The form is a globular bowl raised on three cabriole feet terminating in foliate cuffs, flanked by two scrolling loop handles and surmounted by a domed cover. The body is densely worked in high-relief repousse with a program of naturalistic vegetation, broad palmate leaves and swelling fruits (perhaps pomegranates or peaches) enlivened by incised veining that breathes movement into every register. The lid carries the same vocabulary onto its dome and is framed below by a band of radiating pleated rays. Crowning the whole is an exuberant finial: a bulbous fruit-bud encircled by a wreath of upturned chased leaves, the rosier copper tones of the alloy now glowing through the silver wash where generations of handling have softly polished the surface thin.

The substrate is nickel silver, known across the Andes as alpaca, an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc that imitates sterling at a fraction of its cost and which became the workhorse medium of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Andean silverwork. It accepted repousse work readily, held its silvered skin tolerably well, and placed objects of considerable presence within reach of households that aspired to plate without the expense of solid metal. Stylistically, the piece belongs to the Rococo Revival current that swept through Latin American decorative arts in the second half of the nineteenth century, its swirling foliage and asymmetrical bouquet finial answering Parisian and Madrileno precedents while remaining unmistakably the work of Andean hands. The coquera form itself, however, is wholly local, a vessel type that developed in the Andean republics to serve a use entirely unknown to European silver, a quiet announcement that the imported aesthetic had been bent to indigenous purpose.

Provenance: Ex-private collection of Samuel Saunders, Nogales, AZ, partner of Holler & Saunders, Ltd., founded in 1979 and widely regarded as one of the preeminent authorities in Spanish Colonial and Mexican folk art.

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Item # 201754

  • Condition: Some minor nicks and abrasions, as well as scattered, light patina. Otherwise, intact and excellent with impressive detail.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $749 $25
$750 $1,499 $50
$1,500 $2,999 $100
$3,000 $7,499 $250
$7,500 $14,999 $500
$15,000 + $1,000