Conch Shell Earrings

The cross-section of a conch shell — its voluted chambers fanning outward from a tight central spiral into radiating ribs — is captured here in sterling silver with an economy of means that gives the form immediate legibility. Each rib is cleanly defined in relief, and the polished surface plays light against the convex dome and into the shadowed channels between chambers, animating the geometry the way the shell itself does. The result is an earring design that feels at once organic and architectural.

This design appears exclusively in Spratling's 1942 wholesale catalog, placing it among the more selective offerings of the First Design Period. Morrill records Spratling's commitment to work that stayed, in his own words, "within a style which had a right to exist in Mexico" — a frame that encompassed the natural world as surely as it did the Pre-Columbian sources more commonly associated with his early output. Alongside the parrots, owls, and jaguars Spratling was fashioning in silver during these years, the conch shell belonged to the wider vocabulary of forms embedded in Mexican coastal and ceremonial life, and it suited his instinct for geometry drawn from living things rather than imposed upon them.

Documented in only the single 1942 catalog, the design had a narrow window of production. This example stands as a quiet but characteristic expression of Spratling's gift for translating natural geometry into wearable form.