Inlaid Rosewood Cuff Bracelet

A rosewood cuff inset with silver diamonds and circles, silver beads set at its top and bottom edges, this bracelet builds its whole design from the contrast of bright metal shapes against dark wood. The geometric insets, diamonds and circles, are ordered across the cuff, and the edging beads frame the band, a treatment that turns wood into a worked, jewel-like surface.

The inset-silver-on-wood approach belongs squarely to Spratling's third design period, when applied silver dots and shapes gave his wooden pieces their rhythm and refinement (Morrill, p. 73). The cuff is one of the clearest jewelry expressions of that idea.

The same design was produced in ebony and gold, so the rosewood-and-silver version is one option within a small family. It is recorded in Phyllis Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide. Wood-and-silver cuffs of this kind come to market only occasionally.