Catalog: Estate Jewelry: Silver: Mexican (255)

Vintage 1980s Talleres de Los Ballesteros Mexican modernist bracelet wrought in Antonio Pineda’s favorite .970 alloy which is richer in silver content than the standard sterling, this is a heavy, architectural piece adorned with clear, faceted, gem-quality amethysts. The stones are open on the back to maximize the effect created by the light as it passes through them and the all-silver links are substantial and very sculptural...

Timelessly elegant this vintage Mexican silver Carmen Beckmann ring features a “toi et moi” design with two sparkling color-change sapphires in substantial crown settings. This is a more “demure” Beckmann, if I am allowed the use of the word in this context, reaching for a classic look with clean, lean lines and minimal adornment...

A graduate of the Parson's School of Design in Paris, Erika Hult de Corral is one of my favorite modernist designers and silversmiths in the context of Mexican silver jewelry. Spanning a few decades, her work is unfailingly of the highest quality with attention paid not only to materials but also to finishing and, of course, imaginative design. The ring presented here, wrought in sterling and centered by a scrumptious tiger's eye stone, can also be found with Enrique Ledesma's signature...

When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade and when it hands you an orphan cuff link, you have it converted into a ring. I have always been very partial to pieces of jewelry that would normally come in pairs but lost their partner over the course of their adventurous life...

Sets of bangle bracelets are bound to lighten the spirit and brighten the day with their music and, if they are also studded with stones like the ones at ... hand, the splashes of color they scatter around. Made in the middle period of Taxco's 20th c. Silver Renaissance and signed by listed yet still unidentified maestros, these two came to me as a pair and this is the way I would like to send them out to their next new, loving home...

A classic combination for Enrique Ledesma, the marrying of sterling and stone, makes this vintage Mexican bracelet an easily recognizable creation by the renowned Taxco modernist. The stone is here azur-malachite, I believe, with greens and browns predominant and the warmth of the silver casings adds a certain "inner glow" to it...

If I saw this piece from far away, I would think it's a poison ring - that's how impressive in size and lift its gallery is. Yet not to worry, there is no hidden compartment here and you won't be tempted to become a modern-day Lucrezia Borgia! Beauty and commanding presence, though, yes! There is a lot of that in the sodalite's dark blue depths with their cloudy grey swirls and that river of black cutting across right through the cab's middle...

Matching the highly geometric cuff bracelet that is also available in my store, this vintage Los Castillo Mexican silver modernist ring still cherishes the austere angularity of the Deco years. Set in channels defined by sterling wires, the saturated blues and greens of the azur-malachite inlay clearly mark it as belonging to the workshop's "mozaico Azteca" line...

A seamless marriage of sterling silver and golden sheen obsidian celebrate Enrique Ledesma's creative genius in this set of modernist Mexican earrings. Much published and avidly sought after, the design can be found with various semi-precious and hard stones or, as in our case, housing polished, glistening pieces of volcanic glass. And if you are not so keen on screw-back findings, you are in luck with these as they are actually clip-ons...

A fabulous example of Taxco modernism by Los Ballesteros, this vintage Mexican silver and amethyst bracelet is as beautiful to look at as it is comfortable to wear. A couple of days ago I presented another creation by the same workshop and I will suggest that the two pieces are representative of their line of medium-width modernist link bracelets...

A substantial set from Taxco's "middle period" this stunning necklace and earrings demi combines chunky cylinders of azur-malachite with shadow-box sterling box links. The result is quite impressive as the primarily green hues of the stone (the malachite is predominant here) are tempered by the variegated brown of the inclusions, all colors finally reflected in the glowing silver. I love a good chain necklace and this example combines good length with a presence that will never go unattended...

Made up of heavily “pitted” and oxidized beads, tubular links and a central medallion with asymmetrical dangles this Erika Hult de Corral Mexican silver necklace is an ode to modernism peppered with a touch of brutalism. Ric (as de Corral signs her pieces) has created a few versions of this particular design that I like to refer to as “moonscapes” and they are all a pleasure to wear and to behold. One of the few talented female contributors to Mexico’s 20th c...

One of the most massive bracelet designs by the Los Ballesteros workshop this vintage sterling silver and amethyst hinged bangle is simply astounding! Sweeping wire-work curves and fleshy “dimpled dot” repousse semi-spheres come together to form the bracelet’s two wings while a huge, saturated purple amethyst cabochon takes center front adding color and drama...

The epitome of minimalism - there is nowhere further in subtraction to go from here - this modernist sterling silver collar necklace bears the signature of the Los Ballesteros workshop and was made in Taxco, Mexico in the 1960s-70s. Shaped in order to wrap itself around the neck and rest lightly right below the Adam's apple, its width is at its maximum at center front and then tapers gently toward the two ends in the back of the neck...

One of my favorite female designers of Mexico's 20th c. Silver Renaissance (and admittedly, they aren't so many to begin with), Carmen Beckmann was a rather flexible maestra, able to create in many different styles. using a variety of materials. Her jewelry can be massive and jaw-dropping but quite as easily delicate and more sophisticated. The bracelet I am presenting here I call rare not so much for its design (which I have not seen before) but primarily for the scarcely seen snowflake obsidia...

This past year seems to have been a Carmen Beckmann year for One Good Eye Silver. And even though I cannot claim it was because of planning, it has not been entirely out of luck either. One of the few female contributors to Mexico’s 20th c Silver Renaissance that we know of, Beckmann’s jewelry are works of a confident designer, impeccably finished and at her best moments, incredibly creative as well. In the ring presented here I see a marrying of ancient motifs and modernist sensitivity as t...

Maestro Mateo of Taxco is known among vintage jewelry collectors for his modernist, mostly brutalist, ring designs. His work is sought after for its quality, the beauty of the stones he incorporates in his pieces and the strong sense of tension that his rings exude. His career strides the divide between the so-called Eagle mark period and that of the T-marks and, in my experience, he is one of the very few silversmiths who used .950 alloys before they became the norm in the 1980s. When I came up...

Crafted in the late 1950s or in the 1960s, this sterling silver Mexican necklace is signed by Victoria or Ana Maria Nunez de Brilanti. Victoria is one of the few female designers and silversmiths of Taxco’s 20th c. Silver Renaissance that we know of and she is credited, among others, for perfecting the “metales casados” or “married metals” technique. In this necklace, however, she adds a modernist twist to an otherwise “archeological” design. I cannot exactly pinpoint what it is th...