Cufflinks of Tortoise Shell Hands Backed with Silver

Cufflinks shaped as hands, cut from tortoise shell and backed with silver, are among the small figural inventions that gave Spratling's accessories their wit. The hand was a motif he returned to, and the same design was also executed in azur malachite, so the form survives across more than one material.

The pairing of organic tortoise shell with a silver backing is characteristic of a workshop that combined metal with natural materials freely, much as the Alaska commission would later have Spratling working ivory and abalone alongside silver (Morrill, p. 66).

Figural cufflinks like these are a collectible niche within the Spratling output, and the existence of a malachite version makes the hands a small design family to track.