Hector Aguilar Silver Maguey Bracelet

So this is the infamous Hector Aguilar silver Maguey bracelet featured in Penny Morril’s, Masters of Mexico (p. 62). There is more than one listed. For this listing, I will acknowledge this bracelet as a masterpiece. It’s a bracelet that influenced much of the silverwork that came out of and continues to come out of Taxco. This is why Penny Morrill wrote those books on these silver masters. It’s a personal chronicle for her and an important piece of art history.

If you look at any major work coming out of Taxco, you’ll often find that many journeymen silversmiths reference elements of this work in their own works. It’s nearly impossible to copy the originals as tooling is different in this day and age. Not to mention these bracelets took an immense amount of time to make. Few artists outside of new Taxco masters, Navajo, Balinese, or Niger, are willing to put this kind of work into bracelets anymore. Prove it? Aguilar went bankrupt. Not a personal failing, but eventually the cost of making them and the demand for them dried up by 1962. People still loved and cherished them, but the amount of skill, time, and labor to make this sort of thing in this way isn’t something most people care about. So if you own one of these, you own a piece of history. But most importantly, like a book that was scribed by hand, it’s not an amount of work that’s put into most pieces anymore. It simply isn’t necessary. Again: New Taxco masters, Navajo artisans, and some Balinese artisans. Outside of that? Nope.

Anyway. It’s an actual masterpiece. It’s an influencer without the instagram filter. It’s a testament to a time and place where some people believed that the effort and work put into a piece matters. When you find these pieces and modern artists willing to do this, cherish them. I work with some of them and they’re very picky or particular. They get stuff to you on their time. They work very hard to make things to express themselves, their culture, and their talent. But they also hope you enjoy and cherish it for a lifetime. Well, this baby was cherished for a lifetime. And I’m willing to part with it if it’s going to someone who feels the same.

If you get it, love it. It will most likely outlive you. It’s that well made. You can see it. You can feel it. Anyone watching your wrist can see it. They’ll ask you what it is. And you’d have purchased this bracelet and Penny Morril’s Masters of Mexico. So you’ll tell them the great story of a guy and his wife that once opened a small Taller (Tayer) in Taxco, Mexico in 1939. It’s a beautiful story. I won’t tell you the story. You get Penny’s book. In fact, if you can’t get the bracelet, just get the book. It’s a good book.

“But don’t you want this sold?”

Not really. Someday I may remove it. You can’t get these back. And the price just crawls up every year. Why? It’s not just the name. The work is stunning. There’s your superfluous superlative. Heheh. It’s fine. If it goes, whoever gets it must really love it. They’ll get a little note from me. If it doesn’t, it’s actually from my personal collection. I dress like this. With a Stetson King’s Row and a suede skirt. Some part of me wants you to know that this is possible. Another part of me doesn’t mind if you love it and I’m willing to share the love. If you get it, though, I want you to know what it is. And what it means. And the power of art. And most of all, the power of YOU as art. The freedom to love beautiful things. To cherish them. To give them to someone you cherish. Or to part with it to someone who’ll love it just the same, if not more. It’s a joy that’s difficult to explain.