Large Scalloped Buckle

A scalloped-edge silver buckle worked with an incised scalloped line, this is an early Spratling piece, made in two sizes, of which this is the larger. The design is spare to the point of austerity, an edge profile answered by a single incised line, and it shows the workshop's earliest manner before the design vocabulary fully filled out.

From the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946, the buckle relies on the hand-chasing technique, cincelar, for its one decorative line (Morrill, p. 15). Spratling marked his designs with the joined "WS" adapted from his horse brand (Morrill, p. 39).

With no recorded reference, the buckle rests on its early date, the larger of the two sizes, and a period mark. Its plainness is the point: it documents where the workshop's style began.