Azur Malachite Ring

Set into the face of this heavy silver ring is a rectangle of azur malachite, the banded blue-green stone given weight by the substantial metal around it.

Stone set into silver runs through Spratling's work, the native and semi-precious materials of Mexico chosen as a foil for the metal. The heaviness of the band here is deliberate, framing the stone the way the workshop's rings characteristically gave a single material a strong setting.

The ring belongs to the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946, the years when Las Delicias was defining the reduced, materials-led vocabulary of Mexican modern silver.