Green Onyx and Sterling Silver Necklace

Description

This Vintage Green Onyx and Sterling Silver Necklace was likely produced in Taxco, Mexico in the 1940s. Maker's Mark is partially illegible. This style of green onyx necklace is typical for designs produced in this area at this time.

Beginning in WWII precious metals and jewelry became difficult in Europe. Previous to the war, an architectural illustrator and writer named William Spratling established a silver smithing workshop in Taxco de Alarcón, just southwest of Mexico City. With the shortage of luxury goods heading to the USA, Spratling, along with his apprentices and the surrounding jewelry making community, created dazzling Sterling silver pieces in amethyst, green onyx, turquoise, coral, tortoiseshell, and sometimes even moonstone and colored glass.

Aside from Spratling, these artists include:

• Ballesteros, who specialized, before Spratling arrived, in filigree
  
• Antonio Pineda, who carried intricate modern designs into the 1960s, 
  
• the Spratling connected Margot de Taxco (Margot Van Vorhees) an artist whose husband worked for the Spratling workshop and who segued exquisitely from paper design into silver and
  
• Matilde Poulet who leaned into abstract Aztec design
• And the list goes on!