Azur Malachite Rectangle Necklace

Divided rectangles of silver and azur malachite, separated by silver circles, give this necklace a strict geometric cadence, the blue-green stone set against the metal in a controlled, repeating measure. It is Spratling working in the abstract, modernist register rather than the figural one.

According to Spratling's catalogues the necklace was probably made only between 1956 and 1958, a narrow window that places it firmly in the workshop's later production. It is recorded in Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide.

The piece was worked in 980 silver under the joined "WS" mark Spratling adapted from his horse brand (Morrill, p. 39). The tight production window means examples come to market only occasionally, and confirmation of the stone and the period mark are the two things that anchor the piece.