Silver Jaguar Brooch

The jaguar is one of Spratling's defining animal subjects, the Mesoamerican great cat reduced to a single confident silver silhouette, and this brooch is among its earliest expressions. The jaguar carried the pre-Columbian sources Spratling built his work around, the indigenous Mexican imagery he set against European models from his first years onward (Morrill, pdf p. 39).

The design's fame brought imitation: many copies have been made, and some of the fakes face left rather than to the right of the genuine design, so orientation is one tell among others. It is a First Design Period model.

The brooch is recorded in both Cederwall and Riney editions of Spratling Silver, in Morrill's Maestros de Plata, and in Goddard's field guide. A period original, read by an early mark and the correct orientation, is what separates Spratling's jaguar from the copies.