Spratling Describes These Interesting Earrings as "round

Spratling described these earrings as "round urns with three feet," of silver and obsidian, a small vessel form reimagined as something to be worn. They belong to the third design period, 1951 to 1967, and the maker's own description ties the design to the language of holloware even at the scale of an earring.

The pairing of silver with obsidian, the black volcanic native stone, is characteristic of Spratling's use of Mexican materials, and casting a footed urn as wearable jewelry shows the later workshop's willingness to move forms across categories. The three feet give each piece an architectural base.

Later earrings carrying the maker's own descriptive language and combining silver with native obsidian are collected as examples of Spratling's mature jewelry.