parrot silverplate stone inlay water pitcher

Conceived as a usable water pitcher and modeled as a parrot, this vessel shows Los Castillo carrying its animal vocabulary into functional hollowware. The firm's larger objects belonged to the orfebreria, the workshop set up for trays, tea and coffee services, and pitchers (Morrill), and the bird subject reflects the parade of creatures the Castillos took from the natural world (Morrill, p. 92).

Stone inlay set into silverplate gives the body its accents of color, the metal holding the parrot's contour while the stone marks it. Antonio Castillo opened the Taxco workshop in 1939, and at its height the taller stood among the great houses of the silver city, with hundreds of smiths working under specialized hands (Stromberg, p. 41).