Design 5306 Necklace

Enamel-on-sterling necklaces occupy the heart of Margot de Taxco's legacy. Penny Morrill, writing in 1994, described her champlevé necklaces as "glittering displays of color, texture, and technical perfection," observing that elegance of line and sensuality of color combined to produce dramatic effects (Morrill, *Mexican Silver*, 1994, p. 166). Design 5306 belongs squarely to that champlevé program — the enamel-on-silver line Margot introduced in 1955, seven years after opening her taller overlooking the zócalo in Taxco (Morrill, p. 168).

Design numbers on Margot's work served as inventory designations, and Morrill notes that smaller numbers correspond to earlier pieces (Morrill, p. 15). A five-digit number in the 5000s places this necklace among the later designs from her workshop, issued by a practice that had refined its champlevé work across two or more decades. Sterling silver provides the structural ground; the enamel layer brings the vitreous color depth that marks Margot's jewelry apart from the undecorated silver of her Taxco contemporaries.

Each identified design is a useful record of the breadth and continuity of her numbered program.