Impressed Circle Buckle

Impressed circles pattern the silver of this buckle, with rectangles of azur-malachite set to either side, a quiet play of texture against stone. It is recorded in both Penny C. Morrill's Maestros de Plata and Phyllis M. Goddard's Spratling Silver field guide, and dates to the first design period of the Taller de las Delicias.

The combination of tooled silver and native blue-green stone is characteristic of Spratling's early work, where local materials were given the central role rather than treated as accents. The flanking malachite rectangles balance the impressed field at the center and turn a utilitarian fastening into a designed object.

Belt buckles were part of the workshop's broad line of personal silver, and a documented first-period buckle combining stone and worked metal is sought by collectors following Spratling's use of Mexican materials.