POSSIBLY PERU, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

The present stem was recovered in 1985 from the Spanish galleon, The Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which sank off the Florida Keys in 1622. The silver cargo of The Atocha, thought to have been made by Spanish silversmiths in Bogotá, Cartagena and Lima. Gold and silver from the American colonies was the fuel for Spain’s rise to power in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly after the mine at Potosi was opened in 1545, and the supply of silver to Europe was greatly increased. The Nuestra Señora de Atocha, named after a shrine in Madrid, had been ordered in 1616 from Havana shipbuilder Alonso Ferrera but was only delivered in 1620. The Atocha sailed from Spain in March 1622, and arrived at Portobelo on 24 May to wait for the South Sea Fleet bearing the production of the Peruvian mines, however, it took until mid-July to transfer the cargo to the Tierra Firme fleet, which took on more bullion in Cartagena and copper and indigo in Havana. Their return journey was delayed until the 4 September, when the twenty-eight ships finally sailed from Havana towards the Florida Keys. By the next day, the convoy was in the throes of a storm, The Atocha was thrown onto the reefs of the Keys. Laden with over 47 tons of silver, 500 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of copper, 20 bronze cannon, tobacco, indigo, and 268 people, she sank within minutes on the morning of the 6th. Three nautical miles away and within sight, her sister ship The Santa Margarita also broke on a reef and sank. Whilst the Spanish would try to recover part of the Margarita’s treasure in 1626/27, The Atocha remained lost until 1971, when Mel Fisher and his Treasure Salvors Inc. found her anchor and a trail of artifacts. In 1980 the company found The Margarita, then in 1985 the motherlode of The Atocha. Many of the most important pieces were sold in a landmark auction at Christie's New York saleroom on Park Avenue, New York, in 1988.