Cup or coco chocolatero (cup used to serve chocolate drinks made from the fruit of the calabash tree) with an ovoid calabash fruit body whose surface has been completely covered using sgraffito with an incised vegetal decoration made from zigzag fretwork and horizontal bands with undulating leaves and stems. A smooth ring with two side handles cast in the form of an 'S' are nailed to the recipient and form its adornments; it also has a conical coating consisting of a corolla with four acanthus leaves on a cut plate with holes drilled on the edge, and engraved decoration in its lower area which shows a schematic design and winding vine shoot with grapes and leaves. Conical and smooth, the foot on which it sits has a flat square-based plinth and concave corners, similar to an existing coco chocolatero in the Soumaya Museum[1].
As noted by Professor Esteras, this type of piece is specific to the Guatemalan area, and carved with the seed from a tree found in Central America called the Calabash. With this type of oblong fruit money boxes, known as piggy banks due to their characteristic form, were produced. Its decoration, conceived from wider bands with vegetal sketches and enveloping stems separated by other narrow and geometric stems with dentils, also show a clear link to the Pre-Hispanic era. Named in the inventories as coco de chocolate from Guatemala with silver trim, the traditional habit of consuming chocolate throughout Mesoamerica meant that it was abundantly exported from the seventeenth century to the whole Vice-royalty of New Spain as well as to the metropolis[2]. These are works of a generally popular nature in which the elaboration of the cup is always repetitive. Unless they are dated by means of inscriptions, this repetition of the emblem makes it difficult to date them accurately, and only the stylistic forms of silver mounts and the presence in some specimens from Central American styles allow their classification[3].
In this case both the fruit and the silver were produced with finesse and exquisiteness. The decoration with radial grooves or gadrooning on the edges of the plinth and the flowers superimposed on the handles coincide simultaneously with other dishes or liturgical pieces made in Guatemala between the years 1790 and 1810[4], which proposes an approximate chronology.
Without any type of markings, the inscription on the inside of the foot includes only the name of its owner, Celso Trujillo, of whom we lack further references.
[1]. Chapa, 2003.
[2]. See the specimens on display at the Mexican Silverwork and Treasures of Mexico exhibitions. Cf. AA VV, 1994: p. 45, no. 92, and p. 96, no. 197 and 198; and AA VV, 1997: pp. 280-281, no. 139-140; and Valle-Arizpe, 1941: figs. 100 and 101; and Anderson, 1941: volume II, fig. 177. Guatemala marking also appears in the arc of the cup reproduced in the catalog Mexico and its silver, 1980: s. p.
[3]. Cf. Esteras Martin, 1986: pp. 95-96, no. 46; 1994: p. 28, pp. 146-147, no. 52, pp. 238-241, no. 98 and 99, pp. 288-289, no. 124; and 2002: pp. 450-450, no. 314.
[4]. Cf. Esteras Martin, 1994.
Sources:
AA VV, La Platería Mexicana, México, INAH, 1994.
AA VV, Tesoros de México. Pre-Columbian gold and viceroyal silver. Sevilla: El Monte Foundation, 1997.
Anderson, Lawrence, El arte de la platería en México, 1519-1936, Nueva York, Oxford University, 1941.
Chapa, Martha, Chocolate: regalo del edén, Villahermosa, Gobierno del Estado de Tabasco, 2003.
Esteras Martín, Cristina, “alcancía”, en El país del quetzal. Guatemala maya e hispana, Madrid, Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, 2002.
_____, La Platería en el reino de Guatemala. Siglos XVI-XIX, Guatemala, Fundación Albergue Hermano Pedro, 1994.
_____, Orfebrería hispanoamericana. Siglos XVI-XIX. Obras civiles y religiosas en templos, museos y colecciones españolas, Madrid, Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana, 1986.
México y su plata, México, Ediciones de Arte Comermex, 1980.
Valle Arizpe, Artemio de, Notas de Platería, México, Polis, 1941.
