Necklace of a Rosewood Crescent with Silver Wrapped Wire

The bold parabola of polished rosewood at the heart of this necklace carries its argument in form alone. A sweeping crescent — its tapered ends clasped with silver wire, its center bound by a tight cluster of parallel bands — reduces the silversmith's art to its most direct gesture: material held, not transformed. No stone, no applied ornament, no engraving mediates the meeting of wood and metal.

Morrill has described Spratling's shift in this period as a move toward "a simpler approach to form and an emphasis on surface and line," and characterized his most striking objects from the early 1940s as "beautiful combinations of silver and tortoiseshell or wood" (Morrill & Berk, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 73). This necklace fits squarely within that direction. The wire wrappings serve as both structural binding and visual rhythm — marking the ends, condensing at the center — while the rosewood's depth of color and natural grain carry the weight that another hand might assign to stone or enamel.

Dating to circa 1940-46, the piece belongs to the last years of Spratling's first design period. This one retains the spare, almost architectural discipline that Spratling's first-period work is known for.