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Two clasped hands, one rendered in copper and one in silver, form the face of these cuff links and make the motif an explicit emblem of union: the handshake across two metals. Per the existing record the design was developed for a Pan American event, which fixes the joined hands as a gesture of inter-American friendship rather than mere ornament.
The links belong to the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946. The deliberate use of copper alongside silver belongs to the Taxco school's appetite for combining metals and alloys for color and meaning (Stromberg, p. 41), and here the two tones carry the symbolism directly.
The piece is recorded in Phyllis M. Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide. Occasion-specific designs like this one were not part of the standing catalog and are seen at market only occasionally.
Museum of Mexican Silver. “Clasped Hands Cuff Links.” Catalog no. MoMS-000228. https://museumofmexicansilver.com/pieces/spratling-188
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William Spratling
Ebony X Cuff Links
Silver
