Money Clip with Eagle Head Design

An eagle's head, modeled in relief, fronts this silver money clip and gives a utilitarian object a piece of Mexican iconography: the eagle is among the country's oldest emblems, central to the Aztec founding of Tenochtitlan and to the national imagery Spratling drew on. Compressed onto the face of a clip, the motif turns an everyday accessory into something with a clear cultural reference.

The clip dates to the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946. It reflects the workshop's practice of carrying its design language across the full range of small goods, not only jewelry but the pocket objects a clientele used daily, each given a hand-worked Mexican motif.

Men's accessories in early Spratling silver survive in smaller quantities than the jewelry and come up only occasionally.