Knot Cufflinks

A knot, rendered in silver, gives these cuff links their form, the looped figure reading as both ornament and a small play on the idea of fastening. Spratling carried the same knot motif across buttons and earrings, so the cuff links are one expression of a design used in several formats.

The knot is the kind of compact, legible figure Spratling favored for accessories, where the design had to register at a glance. Its reappearance across buttons and earrings shows how he treated a successful motif as a repertoire to be worked in multiple objects.

As first-period silver cuff links built on a motif shared across his small jewelry, they belong to the workshop's menswear line, where a single resolved figure did service across a family of pieces.