Frame Physical Object


Accession Number
1986.008.1499b
Creation Date
circa 1620
Materials
Description
Large, interior section of mirror frame (1986.008.1499a). Fragments of whatever it contained are still attached. One of 11 pieces (see also 1986.008.1499c--k). The frame could also be the remains of a reliquary. Reliquaries are containers or shrines which are designed to hold sacred objects. Sacred objects fall into orders, ranging from bones or hair of saints, to articles they have worn or used, objects associated with miracles, and others. Photographed with1986.008.1499a,e,f.

Dimensions

12.6 cm H x 16.4 cm W x 2.3 cm D , Item (Overall)

0 kg Weight

Exhibition Label
Case Caption (2023):

A COLONIST— DOÑA MARÍA DE AYALA

Doña María de Ayala had traveled from Spain to Potosí with her husband, Martin Salgado de Rivera, in 1615. High in the Andes, Potosí has cool, wet summers, icy winters, and sits on a barren plain. Everything the couple needed had to be carried up the mountains by llamas. María’s day would have been spent working with her servants to stretch household supplies, haggling with local traders for food and fuel, and mending linens and clothes that could not be readily replaced. Occasionally, floods and earthquakes would add to María’s troubles.

But her husband’s appointments had made them wealthy. When they sailed for Spain, they were accompanied by María’s maid, Catalina, and two very young, possibly Indigenous, servant girls. They all drowned aboard the Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
Object Caption (2023):

Mirror Frame
Silver and gilt (c.1600)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.1499a-k