Azur Malachite and Silver Star Earrings

These star earrings carry one of Spratling's most direct borrowings from his time in Alaska, where a 1949 commission set him designing in materials native to the far north. The azur malachite, paired with silver in a radiating star, derives from the body of work Spratling built around what he called his "North Star" design.

Morrill documents this Alaskan chapter directly: the models Spratling drew used precious and semi-precious materials native to Alaska, including ivory, lapis lazuli, baleen, abalone, Kobuk jade, malachite, gold, and silver, and the blue malachite pendant and earrings were "later variations on Spratling's 'North Star' design" (Morrill, p. 66). The star here is the jewelry expression of that motif.

The blue-green malachite against silver gives the earrings their character, the stone carrying color where the metal carries line. A necklace was made in the same design, so the earrings read as part of a coordinated suite rather than an isolated pair.

Recorded in Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide, the design connects a specific episode in Spratling's career to a finished, wearable object, and pieces tied to the Alaskan series come to market only occasionally.