Beaded Wirework Cross

Wirework and applied silver beads give this cross its surface, the devotional form built up from Spratling's familiar vocabulary of worked wire and rounded silver units rather than carved relief. The beads punctuate the arms while the wirework traces their structure.

The combination of applied beads and wire is a constant in Spratling's silver, here turned to a religious object. The cross keeps a traditional outline while its decoration is wholly in the studio's idiom, beads and wire doing the work that engraving or casting might elsewhere.

As a first-period silver cross built from wirework and applied beads, it belongs to the devotional pieces the workshop made alongside its jewelry, applying the same design language to a sacred form.