Three Wire Cuff Bracelet

A cuff bracelet built of bands of three wires set on the diagonal, this piece is pure structure, the parallel wires and their slanted setting generating the entire design without applied ornament. It dates to the first design period, 1931 to 1946.

Wirework of this kind belongs to Spratling's early vocabulary, where cord and band motifs derived from saddle ornaments were a recurring source (Morrill, p. 39). The diagonal setting gives a static form a sense of movement across the wrist.

A confident exercise in geometry, it shows the early workshop building jewelry from line alone.