Moth Brooch Set with Malachite

A silver moth set with malachite, the green stone giving the insect its body against the modeled silver wings. The moth belongs to the figural naturalism Spratling worked in his first design period, and its commercial life is unusually well documented: an amethyst-set version sold through Montgomery Ward's 1943 Christmas catalog for $13.50, and a plain silver, slightly smaller version appeared in Montgomery Ward's Fall 1944 catalog for $7.50. The piece is recorded in those Montgomery Ward catalogs and in Goddard's field guide.

The Montgomery Ward distribution is part of the documented record of Spratling's reach: his silver was featured in the Montgomery Ward catalogs from 1943 to 1946 (Morrill, p. 257), putting his designs in front of a national mail-order audience.

The substitution of malachite for amethyst across the design shows Spratling varying a single form by its stone, the green and the purple offering two registers of the same moth.

With its catalog pricing, its national distribution, and its place in those references, the malachite moth is a well-documented example of how Spratling's first-period figural designs reached the American market.