Antonio Castillo Mexican Vintage Sterling Silver Brooch Artist Pallet

This Artist Signed (Monogrammed) Vintage Mexican Sterling Silver Brooch is stamped TC-144 MEXICO 925. The design of the brooch is that of an artist pallet which contains four semi precious stones, two coral, one malachite and one turquoise, all of which are “bezel” set. The brooch is executed on sterling silver. The artist brush is gold plated over sterling. It is artisan manufactured in Mexico and dates approximately 1979.

COMMENT: This is simply a great Mexican designer brooch that is guaranteed to be an eye stopper and will receive compliments galore. It has given me much pleasure over the years whenever I have worn it. Now I am sharing this pleasure with you.

Cit. Online Encyclopedia of Sterling Marks: “About 1979, the eagle system was put to rest and replaced by a new letter/number mark to indicate the silversmith and guarantee sterling standard.

The first letter indicates location, and there are few in use, those most commonly seen are: T, M, G & C
In this example the T is for Taxco - others are M for Mexico City, G is probably Guadalajara and C most likely Cuernavaca.
The second letter indicates the first initial of the last name of the silversmith, in our example it is C.
The number indicates that he is the 144th smith, with a name beginning with C, to register a mark in his city's assay office.
So... this example, TC - 144, tells us that the item, on which it is stamped, was made by a silversmith with initial C sometime after 1979 in the city of Taxco. Generally that is all that can be derived from these marks, unfortunately, there is no list that matches the letters and numbers to silversmith's names and there are probably less than 15 of these identified. Our example happens to be the mark of Antonio Castillo, one of the founders of Los Castillo and it is one of the very few known."

CONDITION: Very fine! It shines up nicely.