Crowned Pyramids Bracelet

A link bracelet in silver-plated pot metal that Spratling called "crowned pyramids," this is a design produced by Victor Silson in the early 1940s, with the same design also made in 980 silver in Spratling's own workshop. The pyramid motif gives each link a stepped, architectural profile.

The pyramid is a Pre-Columbian reference, fitting Spratling's program of reviving ancient Mexican forms in metal (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 14). The "crowned pyramids" name, recorded as his own, fixes the design in his catalogue.

The Silson production places this version in the early-1940s licensing arrangement, in which Spratling's designs were produced as silver-plated costume jewelry for the United States market, separate from his hand-wrought silver (Morrill, p. 251).

With a named motif and a documented 980 silver counterpart, the crowned-pyramids bracelet is a clear example of how a single Spratling design existed in both costume plate and workshop silver, a distinction that drives its place in collecting.