Mexican Deco silver and stone "mask" Pin Pendant with Los Castillo earrings

We go through life and change over time, we improve ourselves, we lose some of our attributes, we try to compensate for that as best we can. The same happens to everything around us, plants and animals, inanimate objects that we touch every day and we grow to love. I think this is exactly the story of this impressive, early Mexican Deco silver repousse "mask" brooch. It's a very mysterious portrait that we see here with its combination of "features" that point to different parts of the world yet the end result is imposing and awe-inspiring. Wearing a headdress studded with big, dyed calcite cabochons, the "mask" is also adorned with a pair of dangle earrings that bear the signature of Los Castillo. Yet the brooch itself is not a Los Castillo creation - it is an anonymous maker's masterpiece and it bears classic for the period, often referred to as "generic", hallmarks. I want to think that over its long life, it somehow lost its original earrings but somebody cherished it so much as to have them replaced with the current ones and have a set of fixed bails added to it in order to enjoy it as a pendant too. If this is not love, I don't know what is...


Size / Weight: 3 1/4" tall (including the dangles) by 2 3/4" wide; 47.9 grams

Hallmarks / Date: "SILVER MEXICO" on brooch; earrings are marked "980", "LOS CASTILLO TAXCO" and bear des. no 339; pre-1948

Condition: excellent vintage with the transformations it has undergone (see description above, please), big, bold and beautiful, with imposing presence and an aura of deep mystery, with no damage noted

Inv# 15478