Simple Gold Domed Ring

A simple domed ring in gold, this is a quiet object in Spratling's output, an exercise in pure form where a single curved surface carries the whole design. With no stone and no applied ornament, the ring depends entirely on the proportion of the dome and the warmth of the gold.

Gold pieces are the less common side of Spratling's production, which is overwhelmingly remembered for silver. A plain gold ring of this kind shows the workshop applying the same reductive sensibility to a precious metal that it brought to its silver, letting the material and the shape stand on their own.

With only the form and the metal to go on, the ring is best understood simply as a restrained statement in gold, the kind of unadorned object that comes to market only occasionally.