Hummingbird Mother-of-Pearl Pitcher

A hummingbird cut from mother of pearl, inlaid into a sterling body, gives this pitcher a focused visual energy that shifts as the vessel turns in light. The form situates it within what Morrill defines as orfebrería — the workshop production of larger pieces including trays, tea sets, and pitchers — a dimension of the Los Castillo output that runs at a different scale from the family's inlaid jewelry (Morrill, 1994).

The Los Castillo inlay tradition, as Morrill documents, draws on tortoise shell, crushed stone, and onyx set within sterling grounds, with silver functioning as body and drawn line simultaneously (Morrill, 1996). Mother of pearl shifts that vocabulary toward the iridescent: the shell's surface catches and refracts light in a way that reads as motion, fitting for a bird in flight. On the continuous curve of a pitcher, the hummingbird motif turns with the form rather than lying flat against it, giving the inlaid figure a presence that extends around the object.

Los Castillo has operated as one of Taxco's major talleres since the mid-century silver revival, developing what Morrill characterizes as a remarkable variety of design alongside sustained quality and quantity of production (Morrill, 1996; Stromberg, 2008).