Margot de Taxco ca. 1960 Enamel over Sterling Fish Brooch|Amazing Adornments.com Find of the Week

The Elegance of Margot de
Taxco

You have to be inspired by
Margot de Taxco's life story, even if Mexican sterling jewelry is not exactly to your liking.

It seems her life was hard and filled
with tragic events that would have made most of us fold up the tent!

Her family moved around a lot when
she was younger. There are periods of her life that she would not speak about.

She arrived in Mexico in 1937 along with some of her friends. She soon married Antonio Castillo and it is thought that she designed many of the early Los Castillo pieces. After they divorced, [her second that I know of] she opened her own shop. Many of the designers that worked at Los Castillo went to work for her. She was married at least one more
time, this one also ending in divorce. She never had any children.

I am not sure how I would have reacted to such happenings, but Margot kept her head up and went on to become one of the most respected and coveted of the Mexican silversmiths.

This brooch is exquisite. I have seen it before in single colored enamel.
This one is multi-colored
champlevé enamel and it was assembled in four sections. The enamel was applied by hand. If you see a piece like this up close you will know right away that it was no small task to achieve this type of technical
brilliance.

Most of her enamel pieces were fired at a very high temperature, some times up to 1600 degrees Fahrenheit! Now that's hot!! Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Margot de Taxco Champlevé Enamel on Sterling Fish Brooch Click on the image for a larger view and a description.

Margot's pieces are stamped with a design number that helps with dating. Her enamel on sterling pieces had one series while her sterling pieces carried another range.

Margot de Taxco died in 1985. She
left her mark on the artists of Taxco as her designs are still being produced there today some say with the original molds.

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