Bar Brooch of Azur-Malachite Triangles

Triangles of azur malachite set in silver, crossed at the center by a horizontal silver bar, give this bar brooch its composition, and its documented place in Spratling's career makes it especially significant. It was, like the related circular brooch with inset malachite triangles, among the last designs Spratling created for Spratling y Artesanos after his resignation in 1945.

Spratling's own notes specify the finishes for the two pins, matte for this bar brooch and brilliant for the circular one, a level of documented intent that ties the object directly to the maker's hand. The azur malachite belongs to the blue-green material he had developed since his Alaskan work, where malachite featured among the native materials he drew on (Morrill, p. 66).

The geometric arrangement, triangles of stone bisected by a silver bar, is a spare, modern composition in keeping with the late first-period designs. The recorded matte finish was meant to keep the stone, not the metal, dominant.

The brooch is recorded in Morrill's William Spratling and the Mexican Silver Renaissance: Maestros de Plata and in Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide. As one of his final designs for the workshop, documented down to its finish, it carries unusual weight within his output.