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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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