Continental Solidarity Brooch

A brooch of clasped hands superimposed over the North and South American continents, all mounted on rosewood, is Spratling's continental solidarity emblem in its brooch form, a wartime symbol of Pan-American unity. The clasped hands over the joined continents made hemispheric alliance into something wearable at the moment it most mattered.

The motif appeared across several objects, and Spratling's own term, continental solidarity, fixes its meaning. Mounting the silver design on rosewood adds the material contrast that runs through his work, the warmth of the wood setting off the metal in the manner Morrill traces to his affinity for Puiforcat (Morrill, p. 224). The design has been used as a symbol of Pan-American unity.

As a version of one of Spratling's most historically resonant designs, the rosewood-mounted brooch is a recognizable example of the wartime solidarity emblem and comes to market only occasionally.