MT091  Vintage Margot de Taxco sterling silver and enamel ‘Mod’ necklace with detachable brooch; circa-1955 to 1978
Origin:  Taxco, Mexico
Dimensions:  16" with brooch attached; brooch 1.63" T x 1.5" W; 56.6 gm total
Condition:  Excellent – under magnification, brooch has one speck of missing enamel that does not show silver below and the neck chains have two pinpricks of missing enamel.  Additional photos available.
Provenance:  Private collection
Price:  $850.00

Margot’s Zen Modernist necklace does a solo turn with its sophisticated palette of ebony, wheat, copper and creamy white.  The design’s flowing lines, gleaming surfaces and warm tones are especially beautiful against the skin.  The Yin Yang symbol originated in Taoist thought, aspects of which were absorbed into Buddhism and introduced to Japan where Zen philosophy emerged.  Zen masters famously ask their students to meditate on unanswerable, seemingly nonsensical riddles.  This creates doubt in the mind of the student.  From a position of great doubt, the student may reach a state of mind to perceive reality from a new perspective, free of interference from the ego.  When an old Zen master was asked, “What is the fundamental meaning of Zen?” he replied “Walk on!”  In other words, continue your quest regardless of doubts and adversities.  Margot’s abstract Yin Yang design embodies the process of advancing from initial certainty through devastating doubt, and then perchance to a new perception of reality, as the countervailing forces of the Universe arise, peak, decline and renew in a never-ending cycle.