Tureen
Mexico City, Mexico; 1730–79
Diego Gonzalez de la Cueva, senior assayer
Silver
Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens at Winterthur 1996.0004.231
This showy tureen demonstrates how wealthy Spanish colonists turned ore, extracted at great human and environmental cost, into symbols of domestic status. Made in Mexico City by a Spanish silversmith, the first owner is unknown, but the object arrived in Spain through the port of Cadiz in the 1800s.