Acorn Brooch

This acorn brooch distills the naturalism that ran through Héctor Aguilar's output at the Taller Borda. Aguilar built his Taxco workshop into one of the houses of the Mexican silver revival, and small ornamental pins like this one carried his sensibility into everyday wear, where a single well-observed natural form could stand on its own.

The brooch takes the acorn as its subject, worked in 925 silver with elements in 940 silver. The choice of a heavier 940 alloy alongside sterling is characteristic of Aguilar's material practice, where weight and surface were used to give even a modest motif a substantial, hand-built presence. The result reads as a sculptural object in miniature rather than a flat applied ornament.

This design is recorded in Penny C. Morrill's Silver Masters of Mexico: Héctor Aguilar and the Taller Borda (1996), where it appears as plate I-105a. Bearing an Aguilar workshop hallmark from the (B) period, the brooch sits within the documented body of Taller Borda production and rewards collectors who follow Aguilar's smaller, naturalistic work.