Forged Flexible Preconquest Type Ring

A silver and amethyst "cross over" ring that Spratling described as "forged flexible preconquest type," this piece announces its Pre-Columbian reference in the maker's own words. The forged, flexible band wraps in a crossover form with the amethyst as its focus.

Spratling's invocation of "preconquest" types was central to his project. Morrill describes his work as reviving an ancient iconographic vocabulary by interpreting Pre-Columbian forms in silver (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 14), and the ring's name places it directly in that lineage. The reference is to form and feeling rather than to a literal copy.

The word "forged" points to technique. The early workshop hammered and worked silver by hand without rolling mills (Morrill, p. 36), and a forged, flexible band carries that hand-built quality in its very structure. The crossover form gives the ring movement while keeping the amethyst centered.

Spratling's own descriptive language, recorded here, is what fixes the piece's identity. A forged amethyst ring named in his terms is a small but clearly documented instance of how he framed his designs against Mexico's pre-conquest past.