Silson Eagle Head Brooch

This brooch shows an eagle in profile and carries the Silson mark, the New York firm that produced Spratling designs in plate for the American market from 1941 (Morrill, p. 257). The same eagle was executed in silver by Spratling himself, so the design survives in both its Taxco and its licensed American forms.

The eagle is a charged Mexican subject, and rendering it in side view reduces the bird to a strong heraldic silhouette suited to a small brooch. In plate, it brought that imagery to buyers far from Taxco.

The Silson pieces form a distinct, well-dated chapter of the Spratling story, and an eagle that exists in both silver and plate is a clear example of how a single design crossed between the two production lines.