Mixed Metal Service Tray

A mixed-metal service tray worked in copper alongside silver is Los Castillo on its own ground, the warm copper played against the cool metal in the married-metal manner that became the workshop's signature in hollowware. Morrill illustrates exactly this kind of object, a Los Castillo married-metal tray in copper, brass and silver from the c.1945-55 period (Morrill, p. 98).

The technique fused dissimilar metals into a single worked surface, and the workshop applied it across pitchers, dishes, and serving pieces (Morrill, pp. 91-92). It was one of the things that set the taller apart from makers working in silver alone.

Founded in 1939 when Antonio Castillo and his brothers left William Spratling's Las Delicias (Morrill, p. 166), Los Castillo grew into one of the Taxco School's leading large workshops. Married-metal service pieces of this kind are valued for the crispness of the metal joins.