Openwork Amethyst and Silver Bracelet

An articulated band of scrolling silver openwork carries a double file of round amethyst cabochons down its length, each stone bezel-set where the foliate links meet so that purple and metal alternate in a steady rhythm. The scrollwork is the vocabulary of Héctor Aguilar's Taller Borda in Taxco, where heavy-gauge silver was worked into forms that borrow from colonial wrought iron and Mexican baroque ornament rather than from European jewelry convention.

Aguilar established the Taller Borda in Taxco after his years managing William Spratling's workshop, and openwork bracelets framing rows of cabochon amethyst are among the forms Penny Morrill records in his early production (Silver Masters of Mexico). The conjoined HA mark and the TAXCO 940 stamp place this example in that first decade of the shop, when Aguilar's silver ran richer than the .925 sterling standard.

It is one of a closely matched pair sold together, the two bracelets near-identical in their link count and stone placement, a survival of how these substantial amethyst pieces were conceived and worn. Aguilar's amethyst-and-silver bracelets come to market only occasionally, and a matched pair, rather than a single band, is the less common way to find them.