A one of a kind sculpture by Chato Castillo - a three dimensional version of his iconic ‘perfil de perico’ aka cubist parrot jewelry design that won him the first prize in the Taxco Silver Fair in 1952 - this sculpture was also a prototype for salt and pepper shakers later made by Los Castillo - the shakers are quite rare, I’ve only seen one example and they didn’t come with a stand like this sculpture - and are extremely work intensive thus expensive, and no doubt very few were ever made - techniques include metales casados (married metals) using silver copper and brass and mosaica azteca (aztec mosaic) stone inlay, in this case malachite inlay - the gilt brass ‘feet’ of the sculpture have prongs that stick down into the wood base to hold it in place - this sculpture measures 5.75” tall including the wood base which is 3.25” by 3.25” square by 1.25” thick, and weighs almost 12 ounces - marked on the underside as shown in my last photo with his most common signature “Chato Castillo” and “Taxco Mexico” on either side of his cubist parrot logo mark.

A one of a kind Cubist Parrot prototype sculpture by Chato Castillo in Taxco, Mexico - the design was produced by Los Castillo very briefly and in very small numbers, and I've seen just one of the production pieces.

#chatocastillotaxco #loscastillotaxco #prototype #cubistparrot #perfildeperico #art

Perhaps Chato's most famous design, the 'perfil de perico' (parakeet in profile) aka 'cubist parrot' to American collectors - I've seen literally hundreds of examples of this design used in cufflinks, bracelets, belt buckles, earrings, pins, tie bars, tie tacs, even a compact, etc, but this is the only example that I have seen marked with Chato's mark - "Chato Castillo", all others have been marked for "Los Castillo" etc - this design famously won first prize at the Taxco Silver Fair in 1953, and with Chato's marks this pair must be from right around that time - marks include "Chato Castillo 925 Taxco Mexico" but no Eagle mark - measure 3/4" square and weigh a hefty 16 grams for the pair - Some sellers assume that because an item doesn't have an Eagle mark (or a later T mark) that it's ONLY pre-Eagle 1940s vintage, but this is not always (or even mostly) the case from my experience - in a great number of cases it's because the maker didn't have their own Eagle or registry mark, and the pieces without these marks can be from all eras ie 1940s to the present, and the circa must be determined from a number of other factors including the design, construction, any provenance that came with the piece, and patina examined with a loupe. This design is constructed using four metals ie silver, brass, copper, and dark silver (a colored alloy of silver), along with two stones ie black onyx and azurmalachite inlay. Chato won first prize in the Taxco Silver Fair for this design in 1952, and famous Mexican modernist artist Rufino Tamayo was a judge that year, and he presented Chato with a drawing of Chato's design that he had done because he so greatly admired Chato's design! The drawing is pictured in the original "Mexican Silver" book by Morrill and Berk.

Perhaps the most famous design by Chato for Los Castillo, this is the ONLY item using this design that I have seen actually signed by Chato himself, every other example that I have seen has been marked "Los Castillo".

#loscastillotaxco #chatocastillotaxco #perfildeperico #cubistparrot #taxco #plata