Antique Print of a Creole Lady Drinking Chocolate in Lima, Peru, c.1796

Name: Antique Print of a Creole Lady Drinking Chocolate in Lima, Peru, c.1796
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-14303-34
Price: 530 USD
Availability: InStock

$530

€475 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1796
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 46.5 × 31.7 cm (18.3 × 12.5 in)
Condition: Good. Good condition considering its age. General age-related toning, occasional foxing, and minor handling wear. Please study the image carefully.
Period: The Early Republic
Places: Peru
Reference: BG-14303-34

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

A Creole lady of Lima drinking chocolate, an original copperplate engraving lettered "Dama Criolla di Lima nel Perù" in Italian and "Dame Créole de Lima du Pérou" in French, with the plate number "C. 86" at the lower right. The old text places it in Giulio Ferrario's costume work Raccolta di Disegni delle più Interessanti Vestimenta delle Diverse Nazioni, published in Venice around 1796.

She stands on a paved terrace before a balustrade, in a long embroidered apron over a layered gown with lace-trimmed sleeves and a shawl over her shoulders, flowers in her hair. In her raised hand she holds a mancerina, the small saucer with a ring that held a cup of hot chocolate, and a spherical ornament sits on the balustrade post behind her. At her feet on the paving lie a chocolate pot with a handle and a small cup with a spoon.

Chocolate drinking was an important social ritual among the Creole elite of colonial Lima, and the mancerina was a Spanish-American invention to keep the cup from spilling. The plate was made for European readers curious about the dress of far-off countries.

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