1950's Margot De Taxco Sterling AM PM Screw Back earrings

1950's Margot De Taxco Sterling AM PM Screw Back earrings. No damage, great vintage earrings. 13.5 grams total. Margot Van Voorhies was born in 1896 in San Francisco, California. By the time she left her native country for good, she had survived the death of her father in 1903, the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, the loss of her mother at the hands of a brutal murderer in 1931 and the end of her first marriage in 1936. Fortunately, a Mexican vacation changed the life of Margot Van Voorhies in ways she could never have imagined. In 1937, forty-one-year-old divorcée Margot Van Voorhies left San Francisco on a trip to Mexico City. Fate threw her into the path of Don Antonio Castillo, who took her to Taxco, a Mexican hotbed for the design, crafting, and production of silver objects, in particular jewelry and housewares. Soon, Castillo would become Margot’s second husband. At the time, Castillo was working for William Spratling, a pioneer in Mexican silversmithing. He brought Margot into the business as a designer, helping her to transform her paper creations into three-dimensional forms in silver. In 1939, the pair, along with other members of Castillo’s family, opened shop as Los Castillo Taller [Taller is Spanish for “Workshop”], with Margot as the top designer. After ten years, the marriage between Castillo and Van Voorhies dissolved, as did their professional association. Margot went on to open her own shop in 1948, taking the name Margot de Taxco, by whic