Long Silver Ball Necklace

Ten silver balls and ten long squared links, spaced evenly along a single chain, give this necklace its quiet geometry: it is built entirely from repeated silver elements, with no stone and no figural motif, the design carried by proportion and the rhythm of solid against open. The result is a piece that reads as modern abstraction in metal.

The necklace dates to the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946. It belongs to the strain of Spratling's work where the sculptural impulse is purely formal, the chain itself made the subject through measured spacing of mass and line, a sensibility the Taxco workshop helped establish for modern Mexican silver.

Unornamented geometric chains of this length show the hand-wrought construction plainly and remain collectible examples of the workshop's first decade.