3-074-497 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Gold ornaments from the graves of the Incas of Peru - altar-shrine of gold, with figures of condors, and gods with head-gear representing the sun, 1883. Item from '...a very interesting and unique collection of gold ornaments from the "Huacas" or graves of the Incas of Peru. They were obtained by Senor Don Leocadio Maria Arango, of Medellin, during a residence of thirty years in that country, but have now passed into the collection of Lady Brassey... Gold, in the figurative language of the people, was the substance of "the tears wept by the Sun."...Fig. 3, of pure gold, represents an idol from the altar of a priest, which was devoted...to the deification of the condor, the king of the birds of prey of that region, and generally of the Andes. Above the birds are gods with headdresses, representing the Sun'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.