Héctor Aguilar

Héctor Aguilar (1905–1986) was a Mexican silversmith, jewelry designer, and workshop proprietor associated with the twentieth-century silver renaissance in Taxco and the decorative-arts currents of Mexican modernism. After working for the American designer William Spratling at the Taller de Las Delicias, Aguilar founded his own workshop, Taller Borda, in 1939. During the 1940s, Taller Borda expanded into one of Taxco's largest silver workshops, employing more than 300 artisans and supplying jewelry and metalwork to retailers in Mexico and the United States.

Aguilar designed jewelry, flatware, hollowware, and decorative objects in silver and other materials. His work frequently drew upon Mesoamerican art, Mexican flora and fauna, and the handwrought metalworking traditions of the Taxco School. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has described Aguilar as an avid collector of Mesoamerican art whose modern designs reflected close study of historical Mexican sources.

Early life and work with William Spratling

Aguilar was raised in Mexico and worked as a guide for travelers visiting different regions of the country before entering the silver industry. His interest in Mexican history and ancient art was connected to his work as a guide and later informed the imagery of his jewelry.

Aguilar began working for William Spratling during the 1930s at the Taller de Las Delicias in Taxco. He was initially employed in the commercial and managerial operations of the workshop and subsequently trained in silver production and design. LACMA dates his employment as shop manager to 1935 and states that he began apprenticing with Spratling two years later.

Las Delicias operated through a hierarchy of apprentices, specialized silversmiths, and master craftsmen. Aguilar was among several figures associated with Spratling's workshop who later established independent talleres in Taxco. Others included Antonio Pineda, Antonio Castillo, Jorge "Chato" Castillo, Justo "Coco" Castillo, Salvador Terán, and Reveriano Castillo.

Taller Borda

Aguilar founded Taller Borda in Taxco in 1939. Several craftsmen associated with Las Delicias joined the new workshop, including Julio Carbajal López, Pedro Castillo, Juan Castillo, Salvador García, Héctor Gómez, and Alfonso Gómez. Julio Carbajal López became its principal silver maestro, while Fuljencio Castillo and Delfino Hernández supervised work in copper.

Although Aguilar was the principal designer of work bearing his marks, Taller Borda functioned as a collaborative workshop. The painter, sculptor, and jewelry designer Valentín Vidaurreta worked with Aguilar from 1941 until Vidaurreta's death in 1955 and contributed many of the workshop's elaborate floral designs. According to LACMA, Vidaurreta also provided financial support when Aguilar established Taller Borda, and the two designers collaborated frequently.

During the Second World War, Taller Borda expanded to employ more than 300 artisans. The workshop produced identification bracelets and chains for American military personnel and manufactured silver jewelry for the American costume-jewelry company Coro. Some objects from this period bear both Aguilar or Taller Borda marks and Coro's mark.

Taller Borda also supplied American retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Gump's, and Filene's. An industrial directory for 1947–1948 listed Taller Borda at Plaza Borda in Taxco and Taller Borda, S.A., on Francisco I. Madero Avenue in Mexico City.

American orders from the United States continued initially after the war, but Taller Borda sustained losses after Mexican export taxes introduced in 1946 raised the cost of silver goods. Taller Borda reduced its workforce to approximately 50 artisans after the war and to about 25 by the time Aguilar closed the workshop in 1966. The workshop's closure formed part of a wider decline of Taxco's large-taller system caused by reduced tourism, changing export markets, and increased employment costs.

Design and production

Aguilar's jewelry is characterized by substantial silver construction, pronounced relief, articulated links, and sculptural forms. His designs frequently incorporated imagery derived from Aztec, Mixtec, and other Mesoamerican artistic traditions, including feathers, serpents, volutes, calendrical symbols, and geometric architectural motifs.

Aguilar and Taller Borda also produced naturalistic designs based on Mexican plant life. These included jewelry depicting maguey plants, calla lilies, orchids, and other flowers. A number of the workshop's more elaborate floral compositions were created in collaboration with Vidaurreta.

The workshop's output extended beyond jewelry. Taller Borda produced flatware, tea and coffee services, bowls, trays, pitchers, candlesticks, boxes, chess sets, lighting fixtures, and furniture. Silver was sometimes combined with rosewood, copper, brass, obsidian, amethyst, onyx, and other materials. In one documented box, Aguilar placed a carved amethyst frog on a handwrought silver container, combining a locally available stone with imagery derived from Mesoamerican art.

Production at Taller Borda followed the division of labor characteristic of Taxco's large workshops, which relied on specialized hand execution rather than mechanical assembly-line manufacture. A design could pass through several specialists trained in cutting, hammering, chiseling, repoussé, chasing, soldering, stone setting, polishing, and finishing before completion. As a result, a Taller Borda hallmark identifies the designer or workshop responsible for an object but does not necessarily identify the individual craftsman who fabricated it.

Hallmarks

Aguilar used several hallmarks during the operation of Taller Borda. His early mark consisted of conjoined initials, "HA", in a circular indentation, generally accompanied by "Taxco" and a silver-fineness mark. Other marks included "HA", "HA-B", and references to Taller Borda. Pieces were commonly marked with silver finenesses such as 940, 950, 970, or 990, indicating a silver content higher than conventional sterling silver.

After the Mexican government introduced the national eagle-mark system in the late 1940s, qualifying silver workshops used an eagle stamp accompanied by a registration number. Marks on objects made for Coro may include both a Taller Borda or Aguilar mark and a Coro hallmark.

Legacy

Aguilar is regarded as one of the principal figures of the Taxco School, alongside William Spratling, Antonio Pineda, Margot van Voorhies Carr, Valentín Vidaurreta, and the designers of Los Castillo. Taller Borda was also an important training ground for silversmiths and workshop managers who later established their own businesses, including Pedro Castillo.

Aguilar's work is represented in several American museum collections. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art holds necklaces, bracelets, brooches, boxes, bowls, and serving pieces by Aguilar in its Latin American art collection. Its silver Crocodile Brooch of about 1940, shown in the museum's presentation of modern Mexican and Peruvian silver, is related by the museum to the day sign cipactli in the tonalpohualli and to glyphs in codices such as the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer. An eight-piece cutlery set of 1940–1948 in silver and rosewood combines the output of Taller Borda's silver workshop with that of its carpentry studio; according to LACMA its handles may have been designed by Vidaurreta.

The Art Institute of Chicago acquired three pieces of Aguilar's silver jewelry in 2024 as a gift from Peter and Elaine Liebesman: two necklaces of the 1940s and a Fertility Bracelet of about 1948–1955. The Cincinnati Art Museum holds a sterling silver Fertility Bracelet dated 1940–1945, a silver and rosewood butter knife of 1940–1948, and a silver sugar spoon of about 1955, all gifts of Linda Ellis.

His career and the history of Taller Borda are the subject of Penny C. Morrill's book Silver Masters of Mexico: Héctor Aguilar and the Taller Borda, published by Schiffer in 1997.