Frederick Walter Davis
Butterfly Brooch (Prendedor en forma de mariposa)circa 1935-1940

Not on view

Silver-toned metal butterfly brooch with segmented body, spiral wire antennae, raised dome bosses on spread wings, and scroll wire detailing

Artist or Maker: Frederick Walter Davis
United States, active Mexico, 1878-1961
Title: Butterfly Brooch (Prendedor en forma de mariposa)
Date Made: circa 1935-1940
Medium: Silver
Dimensions: 3 1/2 × 4 3/4 × 1 in. (8.89 × 12.07 × 2.54 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Ronald A. Belkin, Long Beach, California
Accession Number: M.2013.4.1
Classification: Jewelry and Adornments
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Frederick Walter Davis was a prominent figure in the Mexican silver renaissance of the twentieth century. He was a great admirer of Mesoamerican art and Indigenous craft, as exemplified by this bold brooch of a fanciful butterfly embellished with curlicue antennae and jaunty polka-dot spots. In Mesoamerican culture, butterflies were largely associated with the soul and ideas of transformation. The colorful insects were illustrated and described in detail in the Florentine Codex (https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/book/11/folio/100r), a sixteenth-century encyclopedia manuscript of Mexica culture and the natural world.

Born in Illinois, Davis arrived in Mexico in 1899. He first worked as a clerk for the Sonora News Company, selling newspapers, novelties, and an assortment of Mexican goods along train lines between Mexico and the United States. He became manager of the company’s location in Mexico City, which grew to sell fine art, craftwork, and furnishings. When the Sonora News Company folded in the late 1920s, Davis took over the store as his own enterprise and began producing and selling silver jewelry. His gallery was a destination for collectors from Mexico and the U.S., before he expanded and moved his showroom to Sanborns department store.

Rachel Kaplan

2025
Selected Bibliography: Kaplan, Wendy, ed. Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2017.

Frederick Walter Davis
Butterfly Brooch (Prendedor en forma de mariposa)circa 1935-1940

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Frederick Walter Davis
United States, active Mexico, 1878-1961
Title: Butterfly Brooch (Prendedor en forma de mariposa)
Date Made: circa 1935-1940
Medium: Silver
Dimensions: 3 1/2 × 4 3/4 × 1 in. (8.89 × 12.07 × 2.54 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Ronald A. Belkin, Long Beach, California
Accession Number: M.2013.4.1
Classification: Jewelry and Adornments
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Frederick Walter Davis was a prominent figure in the Mexican silver renaissance of the twentieth century. He was a great admirer of Mesoamerican art and Indigenous craft, as exemplified by this bold brooch of a fanciful butterfly embellished with curlicue antennae and jaunty polka-dot spots. In Mesoamerican culture, butterflies were largely associated with the soul and ideas of transformation. The colorful insects were illustrated and described in detail in the Florentine Codex (https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/book/11/folio/100r), a sixteenth-century encyclopedia manuscript of Mexica culture and the natural world.

Born in Illinois, Davis arrived in Mexico in 1899. He first worked as a clerk for the Sonora News Company, selling newspapers, novelties, and an assortment of Mexican goods along train lines between Mexico and the United States. He became manager of the company’s location in Mexico City, which grew to sell fine art, craftwork, and furnishings. When the Sonora News Company folded in the late 1920s, Davis took over the store as his own enterprise and began producing and selling silver jewelry. His gallery was a destination for collectors from Mexico and the U.S., before he expanded and moved his showroom to Sanborns department store.

Rachel Kaplan

2025
Selected Bibliography: Kaplan, Wendy, ed. Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2017.