Amethyst Inset Cross

A small amethyst cross is inset into a plain silver cross, the violet stone nested within the metal so that one form sits inside the other: the design's power is its simplicity, the doubled cross reading as both devotional object and clean geometric composition. The amethyst supplies the only color against the bright silver.

The cross belongs to the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946. Per the existing record the same design appears in the 1957 catalog with an inset gold wash in place of the stone, showing how the workshop varied a single composition between stone and gilding across the years. The pairing of a Mexican semiprecious stone with hand-wrought silver is characteristic throughout.

Devotional pieces like this are an uncommon corner of the workshop's jewelry and come to market only occasionally.