Buckle with Wrapped Wire on Three of the Four Sides

Wrapped wire along three of its four sides keeps this silver buckle's ornament to a single, repeated gesture: the wire framing draws the eye to the edges and leaves the field plain. It is a restrained handling of a form Spratling worked from the very beginning.

Heavy belt buckles were among the first objects his workshop produced, often drawing on cord and saddle-ornament motifs adapted from Mexican sources (Morrill, p. 39). The wrapped-wire edge belongs to that lineage, carried into the Third Design Period (1951-1967).