Bartolomé Gálvez y Aranda Serveware, Ceramics, Silver and Glass

Salva cordobesa in silver, 1759-1768. With brands. Córdoba, Spain. Weight: 820 g. Salva in silver Rococo style, with punches of Cordoba and the score Bartolomé Gálvez y Aranda. It has a high, stepped foot, with a circular base, adorned with incised streaks and other simple motifs of a Classic type, announcing the change of language towards Neoclassicism. However, the dish itself is still distinctly Rococo, with a profile of curved mitering that translates into edges in the eaves. Bartolomé Gálvez y Aranda was a silversmith, although he worked as a marker between 1759 and 1772, using for this work the punch that we see here: his surname in capital letters, in very trapezoidal frame and surmounted by a fleur-de-lys in three-lobed projection. To this punch Gálvez y Aranda will add since 1768 the chronological mark, so this salvo would be dated between 1759 and 1768. It is also an especially interesting piece to come from Cordoba, the main center of Spanish silverware of the Rococo period, from whose workshops came religious and profane pieces of high quality, aimed at customers not only local but throughout the Iberian Peninsula, reaching even the Canary Islands and Latin America. The great diffusion of the Cordovan silversmith will take place, in fact, in the last quarter of the 18th century, through the so-called master silversmiths. These characters acted as trade corridors, according to Pérez Grande, visiting the churches and fairs held throughout the country. The activity of these silversmiths was also favored by tax exemptions...