Lot 119: WILLIAM SPRATLING Taxco Earrings

Screw Back. One is missing the back. Excerpt about Spratling: Taller de las Delicias Edit The highly charged political and social environment in Mexico after the revolution influenced Spratling's decision in 1931 to reestablish a silver industry in Taxco.[3][nb 1] Taxco was a traditional site of silver mines, but had no native silverworking industry. Spratling began designing works in silver based primarily on pre-Columbian and traditional motifs, and hired local goldsmiths to produce those designs in Taxco. Spratling was the primary designer for his workshop, Taller de las Delicias, and was insistent on the high quality of the materials and techniques used in production. Talented maestros shared in the creative dialogue with Spratling, transforming his design drawings into prototypes in silver.[citation needed][nb 2] Spratling's use of an aesthetic vocabulary based on pre-Columbian art can be compared to the murals of Diego Rivera, in that both artists were involved in the creation of a new cultural identity for Mexico. Primarily, Spratling's silver designs drew upon pre-conquest Mesoamerican motifs, with influence from other native and Western cultures. To many, his work served as an expression of Mexican nationalism, and gave Mexican artisans the freedom to create designs in non-European forms. Because of his influence on the silver design industry in Mexico, Spratling has been called the "Father of Mexican Silver".[citation needed] The forms that evolved in silver at Las Delicias were admired by visitors to the workshop, who purchased the objects as talismans of a remote and exotic culture.