Silson Serpent Disc Brooch

A disc carrying an applied serpent, this brooch was designed by Spratling and produced in silver-plated pot metal by the Silson Company. The same design was also produced by Spratling in 980 silver, so the serpent disc exists in both a costume and a precious version.

The serpent is core Spratling iconography, drawn from the Pre-Columbian vocabulary he set out to revive in metal, where the creature was typically flattened and stylized into pattern (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, pp. 14, 73). Here that motif was applied to a plain disc.

The Silson production places this version in the early-1940s licensing arrangement, in which Spratling's designs were made as silver-plated costume pieces for the United States market, separate from his hand-wrought Taxco silver (Morrill, p. 251).

The parallel 980 silver version makes the serpent disc a clear example of how one Spratling design existed across two media. Distinguishing the Silson plate from the workshop silver is exactly the kind of judgment that defines collecting his designs.