Azur Malachite Link Necklace

Shaped links of azur malachite, each framed on two sides by silver and strung on chain, give this necklace its alternation of blue-green stone and bright metal. The malachite carries the color while the silver frames structure the line, the two materials reading as equal partners along the necklace's length.

Malachite was one of the materials Spratling drew from his Alaskan work, and Morrill records the blue malachite jewelry as variations on his "North Star" design (Morrill, p. 66). Here the stone is cut into shaped links rather than set as cabochons, a second-period treatment of the material. The same design was made with obsidian in place of the malachite during the same years, a typical Spratling variation that kept the form and changed the stone.

The partial silver framing, on two sides only, leaves the malachite largely exposed so its color dominates, an economical setting in keeping with his preference for letting stone speak. The second-period dating places it in the brief window after his resignation from the workshop.

As a documented azur-malachite necklace with an obsidian counterpart, it belongs to the material-driven jewelry that came out of Spratling's Alaskan chapter, seen at auction only occasionally.