Beaded Star Earrings

Each of these star earrings sets a silver ball at the tip of all four points, with a striated silver rectangle worked into the spaces between, so the form alternates rounded accents with crisp incised panels. It is a compact study in Spratling's habit of building ornament from simple geometric units, the star softened by the beads at its points.

The striated surface and applied balls are vocabulary the workshop used across many forms, here concentrated into a small piece. Spratling's silver was 980 rather than sterling, and his designs carried the joined "WS" mark adapted from his horse brand (Morrill, p. 39).

With no recorded reference or documented motif beyond the form itself, the earrings turn on mark and condition, and as a pair, on the two matching cleanly.