Frog Box

The Frog Box is recorded in Penny C. Morrill's Silver Masters of Mexico: Héctor Aguilar and the Taller Borda (1996) at fig. I-116, which places it within Aguilar's documented output. It carries the Aguilar hallmark period code (B), situating it within a documented production phase, and it embodies the Taller Borda's ambition to elevate Mexican silver from jewelry into sculptural objects for the table and the home. Its figural and naturalistic vocabulary connects it to the broader run of forms made at the Taller Borda, and its published status anchors it as a reference example of that sensibility.

The design language is at once playful and assured. A hand-raised silver body provides the architecture of the box, while an applied figural casting of a frog animates the lid, transforming a functional container into a small piece of sculpture. The amethyst quartz cabochon introduces color and weight, its violet tone set against the warm sheen of 940 silver to striking effect. The hinged-lid construction gives the object its working life as a box, but the formal interest lies in the tension between the smooth raised volumes and the lively naturalism of the frog, a combination of utility and wit.

The piece belongs to the world of the Taller Borda, the workshop Aguilar established in Taxco around 1940, the period to which this box is dated. There Aguilar pursued a heavier, more architectural and sculptural idiom, favoring substantial silver, bold settings, and figural motifs. The Frog Box exemplifies that approach: the generous use of 940 silver, the confident hand-raising, and the integration of a cast figure all reflect a commitment to objects that read as designed wholes rather than assembled parts. The (B) period code situates it within the documented chronology of that production.

Figural silver boxes by Aguilar are rarely seen, and an example combining a cast frog with an amethyst cabochon and published documentation in Morrill's monograph carries that scholarly grounding. A collector can weigh the published status, the legible Aguilar hallmark, and the integrity of the hinge and stone setting as the markers of an authentic, documented Aguilar box.

Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles, California

Frog Box (Caja con rana), circa 1940-1945

Accession M.2013.4.19a-b. Official museum record Photo: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Verified against each institution's own collection records. All museum collections