Caviar Bracelet

This silver bracelet is the wrist member of the design often called the "caviar" pattern, its densely clustered, beaded surface earning the nickname shared with the matching choker and long necklace made in the same vocabulary. The whole appeal is tactile: a field of applied silver elements worked close together so the piece reads as texture before form.

From the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946, the bracelet was conceived as part of a coordinated suite, with a choker and a long necklace built on the same pattern. Spratling worked in 980 silver, a higher purity than sterling, marking each design with the joined "WS" adapted from his horse brand (Morrill, p. 39).

With no recorded reference, the bracelet turns on its early date, the integrity of the beaded surface, and the period mark.