Chased, cast silver censer in the shape of a deer. New-Hispanic work. High Peru. Late 18th century. 25 x 22 x 14 cm. In the shape of the figure of a deer worked in cast silver which is fretworked on the base. The body opens with a little door which is topped with the figure of a small animal, and is hinged. In its interior there is a small pan for burning the fragrant substances which were dispersed through the perforations on the body. It rests on a tray with a balustrade-style edge. The piece is lifted up by four angel heads. The censer was a piece of homeware that was used to perfume rooms, as aromatic substances were burnt in them. Examples of similar censers can be found in the Museo de América de Madrid, from Ayacucho (Peru) in the second half of the 18th century or in the Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernández Blanco in Buenos Aires, among others. As Cristina Esteras Martín indicates in "Platería del Peru Virreinal 1535 - 1825": "Incense burners (censers or table braziers) are very significant, and although they were not exclusive to this Viceroyalty, they are in terms of the typification of their structures They were carved in molten silver as well as in filigree and took very varied forms, from spheroid containers, to pomegranates, pumpkins, pineapples, lions, roosters, deer, turkeys, doves or llamas. The container rests on a tray-plate ("mancerina") to receive the ashes that come off the embers." Bibliography: "Platería del Peru Virreinal 1535 - 1825". Catalogue from the exhibition which took place in Madrid and Lima in 1997.