Swirled Tortoise Shell Buckle

Carved swirled tortoiseshell riveted to silver, with the corners worked into an arrow motif, this buckle joins two of Spratling's late preoccupations in one object. The arrow was a recurring theme in his designs of the later 1940s and 1950s, and the piece dates to the Third Design Period of 1951 to 1967.

Morrill identifies the silver-and-tortoiseshell pairing as central to Spratling's mature work, where the emphasis fell on the richness and textural contrast between metal and shell (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 73). The visible silver rivets here make the construction itself part of the design, the fastening turned into ornament.

The buckle is recorded across the principal literature, including the Cederwall and Riney Spratling Silver volumes, Morrill's William Spratling and the Mexican Silver Renaissance: Maestros de Plata, and Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide.