Striated Silver Ring

Vertical striated lines run down the face of this silver ring, framed on each side by a scalloped incised line, a small piece worked entirely through surface texture rather than applied ornament. The play of straight striations against the scalloped border is the whole of the design, and it is characteristic of how Spratling could make a plain band expressive with the chasing tool alone.

That kind of incised, hand-marked surface was core workshop technique, cincelar in the Las Delicias vocabulary, the engraving of silver with a hammered tool (Morrill, p. 15). Spratling worked in 980 silver and marked his designs with the joined "WS" adapted from his horse brand (Morrill, p. 39).

With no recorded reference, the ring rests on hallmark, the crispness of the incising, and condition.