Chupamirto Azteca Brooch

Spratling called this brooch "Chupamirto Azteca," the hummingbird of Aztec association, and made it in a variety of sizes. The motif came first as a necklace before being adapted into this brooch, and Spratling also designed a version for Silson to produce in silver plate. It is recorded in "Warman's Jewelry." The hummingbird, or chupamirto, carried pre-Columbian resonance, part of the indigenous vocabulary Spratling translated into silver.

That translation of native motifs was the core of his design language; he described Aztec and Colonial sources as a point of departure for his early work (Morrill, pdf p. 39). The chupamirto's progression from necklace to brooch shows how he developed a strong motif across object types.

The Silson version sits within the documented chapter of his commercial reach, by which Silson, Inc. of New York produced his designs in plated metal from 1941 (Morrill, p. 257).

With its Aztec motif, its range of sizes, and its plated Silson counterpart, the Chupamirto Azteca is a clear example of how Spratling carried a single pre-Columbian idea across his hand-wrought and licensed production alike.