Butterfly Brooch

A silver butterfly, modeled and worn as a brooch. The insect belongs to the strain of figural naturalism that ran through Spratling's first-period jewelry alongside his pre-Columbian designs, the wings and body abstracted into clean silver forms rather than rendered literally.

Naturalistic creatures, butterflies, birds, fish, gave Spratling's workshop a register distinct from the Aztec and Colonial motifs he is best known for, and they were turned out at the Taller de Las Delicias he founded in Taxco in 1931.

With no recorded reference and only the form to go on, this is a straightforward example of that lighter, figural side of his early production. Plain silver creature pins of the period survive in modest numbers.