Design 5280 Necklace

Design 5280 shows Margot de Taxco working in the silver vocabulary that stood beside her better-known enamel production. The necklace is built from hinged, faceted plaques pierced and oxidized with a stepped greca fret, the ancient Mesoamerican pattern that also reads as crisp modern geometry. Small fan forms, beaded borders, and pendant drops soften the architectural band and give the collar movement around the neck.

The design depends on contrast. Polished silver catches the light across the raised fret, while the darkened recesses make the pattern legible from a distance. The necklace is therefore both ornament and structure: each plaque repeats the same disciplined figure, but the articulation lets the whole piece sit as wearable jewelry rather than as a rigid frieze.

Hougart records Margot's silver designs in the 5100 to 5790 range, distinct from her enamel range, and Design 5280 sits securely inside that silver series. In a museum collection, the necklace is useful because it shows the archaeological and pattern-driven side of Margot's practice, where Pre-Columbian ornament became a modern Taxco object through precision, repetition, and finish.