Caged Amethyst Teardrop Pectoral Necklace

Open silver teardrops, each a single looped bar of metal, overlap in descending tiers to build a bib that fans wide across the chest, the lowest row cradling polished amethyst drops hung point-down within their frames. The whole necklace grows from one element repeated and scaled — a loop — so the design carries on rhythm and silhouette rather than applied ornament. It is the kind of disciplined, sculptural construction Antonio Pineda pursued from his workshop on the Taxco zócalo.

The loops nest rather than simply dangle: each tier echoes the one above and falls a little larger, until the openwork gathers into a full, layered fan. Light passes through the empty centers of the upper loops and is then caught and held by the stones at the base, where the deep violet of the amethyst plays against the bright, spare metal.

The collar is worked in 970 silver and struck with Pineda's Antonio-Taxco crown mark and the inventory code YY573, the YY prefix marking a necklace in the workshop numbering recorded by Stromberg. The amethyst drops are left smooth and rounded, their color set off by the openwork frames rather than by any faceting.

Built entirely around the repeated loop, the necklace is Pineda treating a bib as architecture — tier on tier, void and violet stone, a single shape carried the full depth of the design.