Button with Alligator Surface

A silver button worked with an alligator-textured surface, this small object turns a reptilian skin pattern into an all-over decorative texture in metal. The treatment gives a flat button a tactile, light-catching surface and ties it to Spratling's interest in animal subjects rendered as pattern.

The design was also made in a smaller size, so it belongs to a small pair distinguished by scale. As with much of the workshop's button production, a single well-resolved surface idea was carried across more than one format.

With only the textured surface and its two sizes recorded, the button is best understood as a compact study in surface, the kind of small-format silver that comes to market only occasionally.