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A pin-hinged bracelet of rosewood-and-silver "pyramids" stacks Spratling's First Period geometry into a flexible band, each link a small faceted pyramid joining warm wood to bright metal. The pin hinge, the same kind of removable silver pin he used to fasten his early bracelets, is both the mechanism and part of the look.
The pyramid was among the abstracted geometric forms Spratling drew from pre-Columbian architecture and seals in his earliest work (Morrill, pdf p. 39). The design was also produced in silver plate by Silson, the New York firm that registered Spratling-derived patents around 1940-41 and put his designs into plated production (Morrill, p. 257), so plated copies circulate alongside the sterling.
The bracelet is recorded in Morrill and Berk's Mexican Silver, in Mexican Silver Jewelry: The American School 1930-1960, and in Goddard's field guide, and is now produced as a Spratling reissue. Hallmark and construction separate period sterling from both the Silson plate and the modern reissue.
Bracelet, 1940–1950
Accession 2016.545. Official museum record Photo: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Verified against each institution's own collection records. All museum collections
Museum of Mexican Silver. “Rosewood Pyramid Bracelet.” Catalog no. MoMS-000459. https://museumofmexicansilver.com/pieces/spratling-60
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William Spratling
Mask Cuff Bracelet
First Design Period: 1931 - 1946
Silver
