Customer Reviews

Mexican Jewelry

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The authors wrote this before the move to collect became as advanced as at present. There photos are b & w and they are plentiful for this reprint - i have not seen the original; and the text is short and to the point about a few artists. The preamble about Mexican silver antedating the Taxco movment is enlightening and very nicely done. Once can never have enough photos to have an appreciation and this little book adds to one's library of Taller and Taxco and is most welcome even if not a giant or in color.

Though this book is slightly dated and lacks the lavish illustrations of some newer coffee-table treatises, it provides a good, basic overview of Taxco silverwork and traditional Mexican jewelry. (It is interesting to note that these authors are often quoted and cited in the newer works.) The book was written in the early '60's, just at the apogee of Taxco's productivity.

As a youngster, I spent many hours in Taxco, particularly in the talleres (workshops) of Hector Aguilar (Taller Borda) and the Castillo family, and have always been attracted to the diverse traditions of Mexican silver jewelry- from Michoacan, Oaxaca and elsewhere, including Taxco, which was extremely important in the renaissance of contemporary Mexican silver jewelry. The era of large talleres is largely over, with a very few still in existence. Much jewelry in Taxco today is made in tiny home workshops on contract, resulting in a decline of design and variety, not to mention the average workmanship.

This book is an excellent introduction, readable and intelligently written and illustrated, if limited in its scope and size due to the lack of supporting audience when it was written. I highly recommend it to those with an interest in Mexican jewelry and its traditions...

This is a great book if you're looking to read up on the history of Mexican jewelry. But if you're looking for photos of Mexican jewelry or their markings, this is not the book you're looking for.

I don't understand why people are giving this book such good reviews. This particular version of the book was published in 1982, but the first publication, with same information, was in 1963. This book is useless to me. The photos aren't even very good - extremely dated. I didn't want information on Mexican jewelry artists from 1963, I wanted much more current information including hallmarks. Adding the fact that I received a library book copy of this in poor condition which wasn't mentioned in the listing for $11, it was a complete waste of my money.

The book is a little old but has a lot of ideas and pictures (though in black and white) it gives a good idea about Mexican jewelry from pre-colombian times to about the 50's.

Most books on Mexican jewelry focus on contemporary silver jewelry or vintage jewelry made in Taxco, the strength of this book is that it also covers less well known Mexican jewelry making traditions. There is information about jewelry made in Patzcuaro, Oaxaca, Toluca, Chiapas, Guerrero etc as well as information about pre-columbian jewelry and European / Spanish inspired jewelry from 16th to 18th centuries. There is also an entire chapter devoted to religious jewelry as well. Unfortunately, the illustrations are in black and white - however, given the sparseness of information about most regional Mexican jewelry, any reproductions are valuable to those interested in this topic.