Clasped Hands Buttons

Buttons in the form of clasped hands, worked in silver and copper, the two metals setting warm against cool across the joined hands. The clasped-hands motif and the deliberate mixing of metals are the interest here; the same design was also produced as an all-silver button and as silver-and-copper cufflinks, so a single idea spans buttons and links.

The combining of silver with copper belongs to Spratling's broader practice of contrasting materials and metals, a habit that ran from his earliest workshop years through the range of small personal objects he produced. The figural clasped hands give the device a warmth beyond pure geometry.

Made at the Taller de Las Delicias he founded in Taxco in 1931, these buttons are a small example of how Spratling carried a motif across object types and material pairings. With no recorded reference, they stand on the design itself.