Spratling Used the Fish Design During the Third Design

These abalone cuff links carry Spratling's fish design, a motif he used across the Third Design Period for cuff links, earrings and a pin, executed either in tortoise shell with silver or in abalone. The iridescent abalone fish were priced higher in his wholesale catalogues than the same design in tortoise shell, and the links close with a toggle back.

Working a single motif across several object types and two materials is characteristic of how Spratling developed a design into a small family of pieces. Abalone was among the native and natural materials he favored for these naturalistic forms (Morrill, p. 73).