Jade and Gold Earrings

Pre-Columbian carved jade, set into gold, gives these earrings their weight and meaning: ancient worked stone re-presented in a modern ornament. The pairing of genuine pre-Conquest jade with gold places the piece at the most direct point of Spratling's working method, the reuse of Mexico's deep past rather than its imitation.

The ground for that method is documented. The 1932 discovery of Tomb 7 at Monte Albán brought hundreds of objects in gold, jade, obsidian, and turquoise to public view and revealed the technical brilliance of the Mixtec goldsmiths, and Spratling moved within the intellectual circle that included Alfonso Caso, who made the find (Morrill, pp. 38, 76). Earrings built around carved jade speak to exactly that engagement.

With jade and gold rather than the more common silver, the piece stands somewhat apart in material from the bulk of the workshop's output, and it carries the particular interest of incorporating an actual ancient carved element into a wearable modern setting.