Moon Shaped Earrings

Earrings Spratling described as moon shaped pair silver circles edged with small silver beads on both the inner and outer rims, so the band of metal seems to glitter all the way around. The maker's own term anchors the design, and the doubled beading is its defining feature.

The beadwork draws on the workshop's facility with small formed silver beads, a staple skill of the early years when silver was rolled and worked at the bench (Morrill, p. 36). Made in two sizes, of which these are the larger, the design was clearly one Spratling thought worth offering at more than one scale.

Moon-shaped earrings of the larger size come to market only occasionally, and the beading on both edges separates them from plainer hoop forms.