Necklace of Rectangles with Alternating Quarters

Rosewood and silver alternate within each rectangular link of this necklace, the dark tropical wood filling opposing quarters so that the band reads as a rhythm of warm and cool quarters running its length, the links joined by silver. The pairing of silver with native and tropical hardwoods became one of the defining material strategies of Taxco modernism, and this piece is a clean statement of it.

From Spratling's First Design Period vocabulary, the design was extended into a set of cuff links built on the same rectangle, a sign it was conceived as a coordinated idea rather than a one-off. It is recorded in Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide.

Worked in the 980 silver Spratling preferred over sterling and marked with his joined "WS" (Morrill, p. 39), a piece like this turns on the condition of the wood. Rosewood that has held its color and stayed seated in the silver, together with a period mark, is what a collector looks for.