A PERSONAL WORD ABOUT THE ‘LOS CASTILLO’ FAMILY:

The Castillo family were recognized at being one of the top names who played a major role during the height of the Mexican Silver Renaissance days in 1930's Mexico with the focus on Taxco. Starting out like many did by working under William Spratling,the Castillo brothers (Antonio, Coco and Chato) branched off & started their own company in Taxco in 1939 & made a huge name for themselves by creating some of the most outstanding designs that are now some of the most collectible.

Like Spratling, the Castillo's moved away from European designs that were dominating the world at that time & especially throughout Mexico. They proudly started making designs where then you were now seeing historical Mexican figures & themes put into their jewelry designs that were shown leaning toward being very "Meso American-Pre-Colombian/Aztec/Mayan" in theme & signature only to Mexico.

I personally feel a lot of the credit for what Los Castillo was producing should be given to "Jorge "Chato" Castillo" who was one, that instead of following what others were doing, he was actually a 'lead' innovator who was creating his own identity by coming up with new techniques for the Castillo name that were fresh & hadn't been seen before & were so genius, that these techniques are still being continued into todays jewelry designs..

It was Chato who came up with the "Mosaico Azteca" line which was started about 1950 and continued through 1965.He also created the "Onix Negro" line, where onyx was used as the base & the silver design then was overlaid & laid flush as if embedded into the onyx.Another technique Chato is responsible for, was the technique known as "Metales Casados" (Married Metals) where a mixture of silver,copper & brass where each were blended (married) together & it's this technique that is very much associated to the Castillo's to present day & lastly, the "Pluma Azteca" line where real exotic bird feathers were laid behind a silver cut out overlaid pattern to accentuate the feather design to where the feather's color created the Mayan/Aztec theme.You can google "Los Castillo Pluma Azteca" for example or any of the other styles to see what I'm talking about by 1st putting the name "Los Castillo" before the technique.

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THE NECKLACE:

Designed in a choker length of 25 uniform 3/4" x 5/8" panels that are made precisely the same from one to the other. Each are designed with a base of silver & each panel has 4 perfectly spaced bars of silver where the crushed Azurite is laid in a flush setting. Since this is a time consuming technical technique, it requires a precise and expert artisan to make it.

The panels are a trapezoid shape that curve under where the shape starts to get wider as it's at the bottom. Separating each panel is a little silver ball & is strung on silver chain.Has a slide in clasp that "Clicks" when closed. For it's size,this sure does have some weight for it's smaller size,but not so heavy that will be uncomfortable.

**Please go through photos since they play a role to my description**