Wavy Tortoise Shell Bracelet

Wavy bands of silver studded with beads run across this cuff and frame an inset of tortoise shell, the warm shell playing against the bright metal. The contrast is deliberate: in his second design period Spratling leaned into combinations of silver with tortoise shell and wood, a simpler, surface-led approach to form (Morrill, p. 73), and the cuff is a compact demonstration of it.

Dated to the 1949-1951 period, the bracelet belongs to the moment when Spratling's vocabulary had shifted away from the heavy cabochon jewelry toward line, rhythm, and the play of materials. The beaded wave is decoration drawn from structure rather than applied ornament.

The design is recorded in both Penny C. Morrill's Maestros de Plata and Phyllis M. Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide. Tortoise-shell cuffs from this short period come to market only occasionally.