Narrow Cuff Bracelet with Incised Lines

A narrow silver cuff incised with lines that resolve into rectangles and wave patterns, this First Design Period bracelet shows Spratling getting maximum effect from the simplest means: a plain band and a graphic surface treatment. There are no stones and no applied elements, only the play of incised line across polished silver.

The reliance on incised geometry connects the cuff to Spratling's interest in Pre-Columbian and Colonial pattern, the vocabulary he set out to revive in silver (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 14). The rectangles and waves read as an abstracted, architectural take on that source rather than a literal motif.

The incising was done by hand on a band hammered and worked without rolling mills, the early workshop's standard method (Morrill, p. 36). On a piece this restrained, the quality of the hand-cut line is the whole of the design.

A plain incised cuff is a modest object next to Spratling's stone-set and figural work, but it shows the disciplined, line-based side of his First Period output, and such simple early cuffs remain collectible as clean examples of his hand.