Tortoise Shell Jaguar Brooch

A jaguar worked in contrasting tortoise shell and silver, with the shell giving the form dramatic shadow and depth, this bold brooch turns one of Mexico's emblematic animals into sculpture for the lapel. It is recorded across four references, including Morrill's Maestros de Plata, Taylor D. Littleton's The Color of Silver, and Phyllis M. Goddard's field guide, with catalog prices steady around $15 to $16 from 1958-59 through 1967.

The jaguar is part of Spratling's vocabulary of Mexican fauna and pre-Columbian subject matter, here given depth by the play of translucent tortoise shell against silver. Abstracting the big cat into a wearable form is exactly the kind of translation of native imagery that defined his work, as Stromberg describes (Stromberg, p. 27).

A similar design without tortoise shell has been reissued, so correct marks matter for the shell version. A brooch documented this thoroughly, combining a signature motif with the shell-and-silver contrast, is among the more sought-after of Spratling's figural designs.