Brooch with Obsidian and Sterling

Three concave U-shapes radiating outward, inlaid with obsidian rectangles and run through with incised centerlines, make this brooch a tight exercise in geometry and contrast. The black obsidian sits flush in the silver, and the incised lines, marked by hammer and tool, give the surface its only further articulation.

Inlaid obsidian against sterling reflects Spratling's use of native Mexican materials, and the incising, cincelar, is among the techniques his workshop named as core to its craft (Morrill, p. 15). The radiating composition belongs to the abstracted, surface-led idiom of his mature jewelry (Morrill, p. 73).

The brooch is recorded in Warman's Jewelry, Penny Morrill's Maestros de Plata, and Phyllis Goddard's Spratling Silver field guide.