Half Ball Silver Earrings

Half-balls form these earrings, and the form carries unusual weight in the workshop's history: per Spratling's autobiography File on Spratling, this was one of his earliest designs, made from the beginning and continued until early 1946. The simple dome, repeated, stands at the origin of the workshop's geometric vocabulary.

The half-ball is among the most elemental units in Spratling's design language, and its long production run, spanning the whole First Design Period, marks it as a foundational rather than incidental piece. The restraint, a single solid form with no stone or applied ornament, is the source from which more elaborate designs grew.

As one of the earliest and longest-produced designs, half-ball earrings are collected as a touchstone of the workshop's beginnings.