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These earrings were produced by Silson but began as a Spratling design, originally a button made in his taller in 980 silver before being licensed for manufacture in silver-plated pot metal. The serpent motif, drawn from the pre-Columbian vocabulary Spratling worked in throughout his career, was also produced by Silson in various pin designs. The piece documents how a single Spratling idea could move from hand-wrought silver button to mass-produced plated earring.
The Silson arrangement is part of the record of his career: by 1941 Silson, Inc. of New York was producing his designs under patents registered in 1940-41 (Morrill, p. 257). The plated pieces carried his motifs to a wide American market.
The serpent itself belonged to the Aztec and Colonial sources Spratling described as a point of departure for his early work (Morrill, pdf p. 39).
With no scholarly reference and the Silson production the central fact, these earrings are collected for the chapter they document in Spratling's commercial reach.
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