Double Strand Bead Necklace

A double strand of graduated silver beads, this necklace builds its effect from a single repeated element scaled up and down across two rows, the kind of pure form Spratling's first-period workshop produced alongside its figural and Pre-Columbian designs.

Graduated beadwork relies on proportion rather than ornament, the swelling and tapering of the strands carrying the design. It belongs to the early years, 1931 to 1946, when the workshop melted coin silver into heavy hand-wrought jewelry (Morrill, p. 39).

A quiet, material-driven piece, it shows Spratling's confidence that well-judged repetition could stand on its own.