Sand casters

Author: Unknown

Date: 1603 and 1630

Material: White silver

Dimensions (cm): MAS OD 4: H 8,5 x D 5,7 | MAS OD 5: H 8,4 x D 5,9 | MAS OD 6: H 8,4 x D 6

Provenance: Guimarães, Casa do Senado

Owner: Guimarães, Câmara Municipal de Guimarães

Inventory No.: MAS OD 4, MAS OD 5 and MAS OD 6

These three pounce pots or sand casters are cylindrical, with a perforated cover from where the powder or sand, used to dry the ink, was dusted. At the centre, inside a cartouche, they display the image of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira and the arms of Portugal. Between the upper lines/ ridges, there is the inscription of the date 1603 (OD 5 and 6) and 1630 (OD 4).

These sand casters, accompanied by three inkwells (MAS OD 1, MAS OD 2 and MAS OD 3), used to be on the table of the Casa do Senado of Guimarães and are described in detail in the cartulary of the town council in 1735; therefore, they are steeped in historical significance, because they would have served in the written instruments that modelled the life of local society over the centuries.