Silson Plated XO Bracelet

This silver-plated bracelet is a Silson product, the New York licensee's close version of one of Spratling's silver designs, and it documents a model popular enough to be widely copied. Spratling's original was among his most popular bracelets and was imitated by many silversmiths, which is part of why a licensed version exists at all.

Silson, Inc. began producing Spratling designs in New York in 1941 under patents registered the year before (Morrill, p. 257), translating his Taxco silver into plated material for the American market. Spratling's concern with protecting his designs from imitation runs through the history of his company (Morrill, p. 251), and a piece as widely copied as this one shows why.

As a Silson plated version tracking a popular Spratling silver bracelet, it belongs to the distinct collecting category of the licensed American output rather than the workshop's own silver.