Aztec Cuff Bracelet

A carved cuff worked in relief brings Spratling's pre-Columbian program directly onto the wrist, its sculptural surface drawn from the same indigenous sources he set against European models throughout his work. Morrill records that Spratling's earliest designs were almost literal adaptations of Aztec and Colonial motifs, with pre-Columbian seals becoming brooches sawn from heavy silver, the kind of relief vocabulary this cuff carries (Morrill, pdf p. 39).

The carved relief is the design, so its condition is the design's condition: wear to the high points flattens the sculptural reading the piece depends on. This is a First Design Period model, and period-correct examples must be told from later reissues by mark, construction, and patina.

The design was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum from November 20, 1937 to January 23, 1938 in "Contemporary Industrial & Handwrought Silver," one of nineteen Spratling pieces shown, placing the model within the international reception of Mexican modernism. It is recorded in Morrill and Berk's Mexican Silver, in Warman's Jewelry, and in Goddard's field guide. A First Period example with an early mark and traceable exhibition history, distinct from the reissues, is the prize.