ARFE Y VILLAFAÑE, Juan de (1535-1603) - photo 1
ARFE Y VILLAFAÑE, Juan de (1535-1603) - photo 2
ARFE Y VILLAFAÑE, Juan de (1535-1603) - photo 3

ARFE Y VILLAFAÑE, Juan de (1535-1603)

Lot 146
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 18 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1249715
Lot 146 | ARFE Y VILLAFAÑE, Juan de (1535-1603)
Estimate value
£ 18 000 – 25 000
ARFE Y VILLAFAÑE, Juan de (1535-1603)
Quilatador de la plata, oro y piedras. Valladolid: Alonso and Diego Fernandez de Cordoba, 1572.
First edition of the official Spanish handbook on precious metals employed in the American colonies. This practical and theoretical work was intended for artists and artisans on metallurgy, assaying, minting, and working gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other precious stones. It was influential, being a fundamental treatise for understanding the monetary practices during the ‘Spanish price revolution’, a period of inflation which was the consequence of the large influx of precious metals like gold and silver carried by the Spanish treasure fleet from the American colonies (namely Mexico and Peru) into the Iberian Peninsula. Among many important features, this work prevented further fraud as it provided a method of determining the presence or proportion of silver or gold in currency, an issue of grave concern in trade in the 16th century. Arfe was a goldsmith, sculptor, designer, assayer of the mint at Segovia, and an important figure in the development of the 'Plateresque'; his signature appears on the final leaf of this work, as usual. The woodcuts illustrate weights and measures, marks, smelting and other processes. Adams A-2004; Brunet V, 1223; Hoover 54; Palau I, 16053; Schuh, Mineralogy & Crystallography: A Biobibliography, 1469 to 1920, 234.

Quarto (203 x 142mm). Large woodcut armorial of the Cardinal Bishop of Siguenza on title, woodcut illustrations, ornamental initials (the majority of gatherings washed and resized with some associated brittleness to extremities of the leaves and consequent occasional tiny marginal chips and nicks, title repaired at top inner corner, G8 with more extensive marginal repaired tears almost touching text, blank lower corner of H2 repaired, H5 silked and with repaired tears into text affecting a few letters, some occasional faint browning and staining). Modern vellum by F. Domenech, spine lettered in ink. Provenance: illegible washed inscription in blank top margin of title – authorial ink inscription in blank margin on verso of final leaf.
Place of origin:Europe, Spain
Auction house category:Books and manuscripts, Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
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