Bakelite Link Necklace

This necklace is a specific Los Castillo link design, not a generic chain entry: its repeating sterling links are anchored by a small Bakelite pendant, so the design depends on contrast as much as on construction. The auction record describes a 15 inch necklace with a 1.75 by 0.75 inch pendant and a hallmark on the verso.

Los Castillo, founded in Taxco in 1939, built its reputation through workshop production that could move from individual bench work to repeatable, highly finished forms. In this piece, the silver link structure carries the rhythm while the Bakelite drop gives the necklace its focal point.

The piece records Los Castillo's midcentury interest in pairing nontraditional materials with worked sterling silver. Its museum value is not in rarity alone, but in how clearly it preserves a workshop solution to the pendant necklace: modular links, a contrasting drop, and a compact design that wears its construction openly.