Necklace of Alternating Five Silver and Six Tortoise Shell

Five silver and six tortoise shell discs alternate on a link chain, a simple repeating rhythm that makes the contrast between metal and warm shell the entire design. It is recorded in Sandraline Cederwall and Hal Riney's Spratling Silver and in Phyllis M. Goddard's field guide, first appeared in the 1962 Spratling catalog, and continued to be made until Spratling's death in 1967, with a 1967 wholesale price of $22.40.

The alternation of silver and tortoise shell is a recurring Spratling combination, here reduced to its essentials: a counted sequence of discs strung on chain. The catalog history documents a design produced steadily through the workshop's final years.

Documented later jewelry of this kind is collected as a clean example of Spratling's use of tortoise shell with silver, and a necklace tied to the closing years of the workshop carries that history with it.