Cuff Bracelet with Rope Design Running Along the Center

A rope design runs along the center of this silver cuff, which terminates at each end in expanded swirls, marrying a worked linear texture to a pair of resolving curves. The rope twist is one of the hand-worked devices Spratling used in his early jewelry, and here it provides a continuous spine down the length of the bracelet.

The expanded swirls at the terminals give the cuff its finish, turning the open ends into deliberate decorative resolutions rather than plain edges. The combination of a central rope and swirled ends is a complete first-period design, structural and ornamental at once.

Early Spratling cuffs built on the rope motif come to market only occasionally. The consistency of the hand-worked rope and the symmetry of the terminal swirls are what reward close attention.