- Title
- Netsuke Brooch (Broche con Netsuke)
- Date Made
- circa 1940
- Medium
- Ivory, silver, hematite
- Dimensions
- 3 1/2 × 2 5/8 × 1 in. (8.89 × 6.67 × 2.54 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2015.3
- Collecting Area
- Latin American Art
- Curatorial Notes
In this delicate brooch, Margot van Voorhies Carr combined her lifelong admiration for Asian art with the refined silverwork she learned in her adopted home of Mexico. She likely purchased this ivory netsuke, a small sculptural toggle used to counterbalance cases on kimono sashes (see, e.g., AC1998.249.296), while visiting her hometown of San Francisco. She returned with it to Taxco, the epicenter of the modern Mexican silver industry, where she designed the pin’s silver setting of curving flowers and an arch of hematite stones.
Carr met the silver designer Antonio Castillo (1917–2000) in 1937 while visiting Taxco. After the two married, she became the lead designer in his workshop Los Castillo, which was established in 1939. Following their divorce in 1946, Margot opened her own workshop known as Margot de Taxco. There she continued making Asian-inspired works.
Rachel Kaplan
2025
- Copyright
- © artist or artist's estate
