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Examples
of Vintage Turquoise Jewelry from Mexico
While
the craft of making silver
jewelry is a relatively recent development among Indians of
the American Southwest, this is far from the case in Mexico. There,
the Spanish taught the Indians to work silver centuries ago. The result
over time has been the emergence of a unique Mexican style of silver
jewelry combing the Spanish love for bold, dramatic effects with
the native talent for colorful, expressive decoration.
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Mexican jewelry often brings to mind a picture of heavy silver
pieces with pseudo-Aztec motifs, set with green or black stones and
ornamented with silver domes or balls to give them a „primitive
look. The style originated around 1920 when Mexicans began making silver
jewelry for the ever-increasing numbers of tourists. The tourists
eagerly bought up the jewelry and the designs were copied by hundreds
of silversmiths who could make jewelry but were not capable of designing
it.
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The contemporary silver jewelry industry in Mexico began in the
mid-1920s and coincided with a great revival of interest in archaeological
research. Museums were adding excellent examples of pre-Hispanic art
and publishers were bringing out important new books on archaeological
subjects. Taken by the beauty of ancient Indian designs which made traditional
styles pale by comparison, the better jewelry designers began to incorporate
them in their work. Interestingly, two Americans were at the forefront
of this new direction in Mexican jewelry making.
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Fred Davis left medical school in Chicago in 1910, moved to Mexico,
and took a job buying curios and folk art from artisans in all parts
of Mexico. He developed a fascination with the popular arts of Mexico
which eventually gravitated into silver jewelry. Davis worked with silversmiths
in Mexico City, encouraging them to make silver jewelry for his
shop which he described as "unmistakably Mexican."
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He took naturally to designing silverwork, jewelry, flatware, serving
pieces and boxes and ultimately to producing it himself. In his years
as manager of antiques and fine crafts at the famed Sanborn's department
store in Mexico City, Davis influenced countless Mexican silversmiths
through his ideas on style and design.
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William Spratling, trained in the United States as an architect, came
to the beautiful mountain community of Taxco, Mexico in 1929. Within
two years, he turned his talents to designing and making jewelry and
established a workshop. By 1940, he had over 100 silversmiths in his
workshop producing Spratling designed silver jewelry that tourists bought
up almost as quickly as it was produced. The list of men and women who
learned their craft in his workshop reads like a Who's Who of the Mexican
silver jewelry industry.
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Many of Spratling's smiths and others who learned from them went on
to found their own shops and produce works still eagerly sought by collectors.
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Here are just a few of the famed Mexican designers whose work you will
find in our shop: Hector Aguilar, Antonio Piñeda, Victoria, Beto,
Margot of Taxco, Los Castillo, Los Ballesteros, Maricela, Alfredo Villasana
and of course, William Spratling and Frederick Davis.
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William
Spratling quickly made many friends in the literary, political
and artistic worlds of Mexico. The summers he spent in Mexico
during 1926, 1927, and 1928 enabled him to establish many
contacts among the then current "movers and shakers."
Spratling moved to Mexico in 1929 to write his book Little
Mexico. When Dwight Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico mentioned
to Spratling that Morrow wanted to make a personal "non
political" gift to the city of Cuernavaca, Spratling
suggested that his friend Diego Rivera might be persuaded
to create frescoes in the Cortes Palace in Cuernavaca. For
helping to arrange this transaction, Spratling received two
thousand dollars, which he immediately used to purchase a
house in the Calle de las Delicias in Taxco.
Early
in 1931, Dwight Morrow remarked to Spratling, "What a
pity, Bill, that of all the thousands of tons of silver sent
back from Taxco to the old world over the centuries, that
none of this ever stayed here nor was utilized to create an
industry or economy for Taxco." New information suggests
that, contrary to Spratling's account in his autobiography,
File on Spratling, his silver designs were not the major offering
in his earliest shop, La Aduana. (Throughout his life, Spratling
had financial crises, and at this period, in 1931, his need
to create income to cover his minimal living expenses was
serious.) La Aduana opened June 27, 1931 and initially the
main focus was probably tin ware, copper, weavings and furniture,
and to a slighly lesser extent, silver - all designed by Spratling.
Silver jewelry and silver objects designed by Spratling
became the primary focus of his shop by 1933. The shop, with
its weavers, copper and tin smiths and silversmiths, Spratling
later said, was "a four ring circus."
Spratling
made silver ring with turquoise. Spratling has become
very famous and probably the most collectible of the Mexican
metal smiths. You can tell his style was very modern for the
time.
Info from: http://www.spratlingsilver.com
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