Three Ball Buckle

Three silver balls running down one side give this buckle its whole composition, a primitive, deliberately unfussy design from very early in Spratling's production. The buckle and the heavy belt fitting were among the first forms his Taller de Las Delicias made after 1931, the silver melted from coins (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 156).

Spratling described these early pieces as built on borrowed structure, rings and buckles "embodying cord designs derived from saddle ornaments," the charro's regalia reworked into modern silver (Morrill, p. 156). The asymmetry of balls along one edge is the kind of simple, strong gesture that defines his earliest work.

This design was made in three sizes. It is recorded in Phyllis M. Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide. Early buckles of this kind come to market only occasionally.