Silson Double Urn Brooch

Two Aztec urn designs joined by a framed domed ball, this brooch is a Silson piece, made under the licensing arrangement that put Spratling's designs into mass production in the United States. Silson, Inc. of New York began producing Spratling designs in 1941, after his patents were registered in 1940-41 (Morrill, p. 257).

The Pre-Columbian sources are characteristic of Spratling's early vocabulary: he later described how "the pre-Columbian seals became brooches, sawed out of heavy sheet silver," forming a point of departure for the new work (Morrill, p. 39). Silson produced each urn as a single brooch as well, so the joined version represents a recombination within the line.

In silver plate rather than sterling, these licensed pieces document how Spratling's Taxco motifs reached an American costume-jewelry audience during the war years.