Cascabel Drop Earrings

Half-ball forms hung with three cascabel drops, these early earrings join two of the workshop's simplest devices, the dome and the small bell. The half-dome earring was among the very first objects Spratling's taller produced, the silver in the earliest pieces melted from coins (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 156).

The cascabel drops add a native folk element to that plain geometric base, the bells drawn from a deeply Mexican ornamental tradition. The combination gives the earrings both weight and movement.

Early earrings of this foundational type come to market only occasionally.