Brian and Taxco

I was watching one of the off channels the other nite and there was a program on called Craftsmen. This episode was about the history of the art culture in Taxco, Mexico. Wm. Spratling, an architect, seems to be responsible for the silversmithing culture there and as a result Taxco became one of the greatest art centers in the world at that time.

I remember that Brian lists one of his locations as Taxco. I wonder if he was part of this movement and perhaps could fill us in on this seemingly lost history of jewelry making.

I wasn't around during the William Spratling era... but I did live and work there for 7 years.

Not sure exactly, but from around '89 to maybe '97?

Then I returned to California, designed and sold products that were made by my 3 man crew for some years after.

Closed my shop and sold the property and house ten years ago.


But I can tell you about those shops that were around during my days down there... might have to go look up some of the people & shops whose names I have forgotten, but it was fairly small town then and everybody pretty much knew everybody.

It is nothing like it once was, when the 2 silver mines were still open, in the days before the Chinese came and bought a copy of almost every design in every shop in the town.

Originally, there were 3 silver mines. By the time I closed up and left all were closed. (Unless one has re-opened recently?)

The products were sold by the gram back then (unless they were custom) and the Chinese managed to beat the Mexican price by just 3 cents a gram. Not much... unless you figure out what that difference would make on a container van full of silver.

But enough to take away 70% of the bread & butter money - and pretty much destroy the wholesale business.

Only about half the registered shops from the heyday remain, and they survived on tourism.

Unfortunately, since Mexico has become a war zone, tourism too has suffered.

Haven't been down for a coupla years, so I don't know who is left?


Brian

The era of Spratling and the the shops that each of his apprentices set up, as well as a lot of the shops that spun off from those apprentices and their relatives is fairly well documented in the following books that I found in my library: (I knew some of these authors)

Mexican Jewelry - Davis & Pack

The Little Book of Mexican Silver Trade and Hallmarks - Hougart

Spratling Silver; A Field Guide - Goddard

Silver Gringo - Mark

The Color of Silver, William Spratling, His Life and Art - Littleton

1962 Spratling Catalog

Silver Masters of Mexico - Morrill

Mexican Silver - Morrill & Beck

William Spratling and the Mexican Silver Renaissance - Maestros de Plata

Spratling Silver - Cederwall & Riney


There may even be a new book or two? I quit collecting them over 10 years ago... about the time I quit doing restoration for Spratling collectors.


Brian

I have to say that I personally, never really cared much for some of the original Spratling designs... a bit crude and rough for my eye.

So, I changed my designs to be more pleasing to me - and still stay within the parameters of what the Spratling heritage was producing and selling as "traditional" in Taxco.

When you are in whatever market you are in, you kinda have to make what the majority of customers want - or go broke...

By the way, very few items that we produced down there had any engraving on them - 90% of our work was silversmithing, the rest being some stone setting or inlays and a small amount of custom work with gold accents.


B.