*Kéro

representing a human face. The lip of the neck has a fine border incised with cross-hatching. The neck narrows at the level of the skull of the human effigy, which is adorned with a forehead band decorated with chevrons. The body of the cup is decorated with a face with stylised features: almond-shaped eyes with circles around them, a hooked nose like a bird's beak, a thin mouth with pursed lips. On either side of the face, circular ears stand out in relief. Hammered silver Chimu, Peru, 1100 - 1400 AD 17.2 x 8.7 cm Provenance: - Former Jean Lions collection, Geneva, Switzerland since 1968 - Former collection Monique Nordmann, Switzerland, 1984 The kero is a cup characteristic of South American cultures used during ritual ceremonies to serve and consume liquids such as fermented drinks like the famous chicha (ak'a in Quechua). This goblet testifies to the great technical mastery of the Chimús artisans. Made of silver, the one we present was reserved for dignitaries and priests. Indeed, silver is a privileged material, considered in the same way as gold. By its color and its shiny aspect, it is associated with Mama Quilla, the lunar divinity of the Andean pantheon, and symbolizes power, authority and religion. During the ceremonies, the kero is invested with a symbolic charge and becomes an element of communion with the divine. The Chimú culture developed between 850 and 1500 AD on the northern coast of Peru, around the Moche valley, and reached its peak around the 12th and 13th centuries. It is considered to be one of the most important and complex societies of the Andes for having favoured the development of large cities and constituted a highly developed centralized system. The Chimús artisans were at the origin of innovations in the manufacture of metal objects such as sacrificial knives (tumi), funerary masks, cups recognizable by the representation of a face and jewelry. Their talent as metalworkers so seduced the Incas that they forced them to work in Cuzco. No people of ancient Peru produced as many metal objects as the Chimús. Thanks to their knowledge of metals, they worked silver, a malleable but brittle metal, by combining it with copper. This allowed them to design larger objects, thanks to thin but more rigid and therefore stronger alloy sheets. The Pigorini Museum (Rome, Italy) and the Gold Museum (Lima, Peru), preserve examples of silver cups whose iconography is very close to the one presented here. Good state of conservation *This lot is presented in temporary importation