The Chimu people were certainly very expert workmen in gold and silver. De Leon asserts that, when the Incas conquered them, they took to Cuzco many of the artisans of the country, “because they were very expert in the working of metals, and the fashioning of jewels and vases in gold and silver.” In the cut following we have two vases—the smaller one of gold, the larger of silver. The material is very thin, and the ornaments are produced by hammering from the inside.
Besides such works as just described they had the art of casting representations of men, animals, and reptiles in silver—sometimes hollow, sometimes solid. They even cast more complex objects. Mr. Squier says he has one “representing three figures—one of a man, and two women, in a forest. It rises from a circular base about six inches in diameter, and weighs forty-eight and a half ounces. It is solid throughout—or, rather, is cast in a single piece, and rings, when struck, like a bell.” The trees, he says, are well represented, their branches spreading in every direction. The human figures are also well proportioned, and full of action. They also knew how to manufacture bronze. Many agricultural implements are found, not only at Chimu, but all along the coast. In the preceding cut we have bronze knives and tweezers—also, a war-club of the same material.
