Vintage Los Castillo Style Alpaca Mexican Taxco Ice Bucket and Tongs Barware Set

A vintage, mid century era alpaca metal and shell ice bucket with tongs. The ice bucket is fully embellished and decorated with shells on the outside, the accompanying pair of ice cube tongs have a shell decoration on either side. The ice bucket also features two round, twisted design handles on either side. Sotheby's offers a beautiful history of Los Castillo, who are clearly the inspiration and motivation for this work of art, "Los Castillo, the well-known Mexican silversmiths of the picturesque city of Taxco, was established in 1939. The name refers to the brothers Antonio, Jorge, Miguel and Justo Castillo whose skills were developed at a young age under the influence of William Spratling (22 September 1900 – 7 August 1967). Writing from Taxco on the day of Spratling's death, caused when his car struck a tree after swerving to avoid something in the road, a correspondent noted that he was an 'internationally known author, artist and father of the silver jewelry industry here. . . .