Design 5586 Necklace

Design number 5586 places this graduated collar in Margot van Voorhies Carr's mature production — Morrill & Berk note that, within her numbered design inventory, higher numbers signal later entries (Mexican Silver, 1994). The form is a fan of graduated, articulated trapezoidal segments, each housing a column of raised silver circles against a black enamel ground, arrayed as a collar that settles close at the neck and flares wide across the chest. It is an uncompromisingly geometric statement in silver and enamel.

The design vocabulary holds to strict geometry throughout. The pendant segments are built from open rectangular channels — frames within frames — while the chain links grading back toward the clasp carry a lighter, related pattern of diagonal lines and circular accents, so that the transition from collar to chain reads as a single designed field rather than two distinct parts. Morrill & Berk describe Margot's black-and-white enamel work as pieces that "jump and jive like the sound of a jazz trio" (Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 168), and this collar's insistent rhythmic repetition of circles in row after row fits that characterization well. The piece carries the "Margot de Taxco Sterling" stamp alongside the Eagle 22 assay mark on the reverse of the pendant.

Morrill & Berk document champlevé as Margot's technique for her necklace work and characterize the results as "glittering displays of color, texture, and technical perfection" (Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 166). In this collar the palette is confined to black enamel and polished silver, placing all the visual energy in geometric form and the measured rhythm of the repeated dot motif.