parrot silverplate malachite pitcher

A parrot inlaid with malachite, set against a hammered silverplate body, makes this pitcher a vivid demonstration of Los Castillo decoration. The green stone supplies the parrot's color while the hammered ground gives the metal its worked texture.

The taller was recognized for combining metal with inlaid stone, the experimental practice Morrill documents in its circle (Morrill, p. 206). The parrot belongs to the bird motifs the workshop favored.

Los Castillo, founded in Taxco in 1939, was among the talleres grandes whose scale supported this finish (Stromberg, p. 41). Malachite parrot pitchers appear with some regularity among the workshop's animal holloware and remain a recognizable example of the form.