Early Silver Necklace of Heavy Links

Heavy silver links, each with curvilinear ends and a silver ball centered on it, give this early necklace its weight and its rhythm, the rounded forms repeating down the chain. It is a First Design Period piece, from the years after Spratling founded the Taller de Las Delicias in 1931.

The emphasis on mass and repeated rounded form belongs to the workshop's earliest vocabulary, alongside the half-dome and ball shapes Morrill associates with its first production (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 156). The 980 silver Spratling preferred gave such a substantial piece its softer patina (Morrill, p. 36).

The necklace is recorded in Morrill and Berk's Mexican Silver: 20th Century Handwrought Jewelry & Metalwork. Early heavy-link necklaces of this kind come to market only occasionally.