Silver Ball Cord Necklace

Same-sized silver balls, strung on cord, make a necklace reduced to a single idea: the sphere, repeated. There is no clasp ornament, no stone, no figural element, only the uniform run of hand-formed beads, and the restraint is the point. It is the most elemental form in the workshop's bead vocabulary.

The necklace dates to the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946. Pieces this pared down show how much of Spratling's modern Mexican silver rested on proportion and the quality of the handwork rather than on applied decoration.

Plain silver-bead necklaces remain among the most wearable of the early designs and are collected as such.