Spiral Disc Earrings

These screwback earrings isolate the spiral disc motif from the larger Los Castillo set and make it work at the scale of the ear. Each roundel encloses a darkened coil within a polished silver rim, so the design reads first as a crisp circle and then as a line turning inward. At roughly 7/8 inch across, the pair preserves the same module used in the necklace and bracelet without miniaturizing the visual idea.

The strength of the earrings is their compression. Removed from the rhythm of a chain or bracelet, the spiral becomes a single sign: compact, graphic, and immediately legible. The niello-darkened recesses sharpen that reading and keep the silver from flattening into a plain stamped disc.

The marks reported with the original set place the design within the early Los Castillo vocabulary of the 1940s: Los Castillo, Taxco, in a circle; Sterling; Hecho en Mexico, in a circle; and design number 317. The absence of an eagle assay mark accords with a pre eagle dating. The earrings show how readily Los Castillo could carry one abstract design across formats while keeping each object complete on its own.