Amethyst Sunburst Brooch

A brooch centered on a faceted amethyst, surrounded by five more faceted amethysts with silver sun rays radiating between them, builds a small sunburst around a cluster of stones. The radiating silver rays give the piece its solar reading, the cool purple stones set against the bright metal points.

Faceted amethysts recur across Spratling's jewelry, and fitting the silver around the stones, building the design out from the cut gems, was characteristic of his bench practice. The sunburst arrangement is the kind of distilled, near-geometric figuration he favored over literal representation. The brooch is recorded in Morrill's William Spratling and the Mexican Silver Renaissance: Maestros de Plata.

Amethyst sunburst pins of this construction come to market only occasionally, and the arrangement of six faceted stones among silver rays marks it as a considered Spratling design.