Codex Nuttall Eagle Brooch

A silver brooch of a mythical feathered eagle, this design carries an unusually rich exhibition record: a version with earlier WS print and Taxco hallmarks was one of 19 pieces of Spratling silver shown at the Brooklyn Museum's "Contemporary Industrial & Handwrought Silver" from November 1937 to January 1938. In a December 1937 letter, the museum's Louise Chase wrote that the case of Spratling's silver was among the most admired in the exhibition and the only example of Mexican craftsmanship on view. The brooch is recorded in Morrill and Berk's "Mexican Silver" and Goddard's field guide, and it appeared in the Spring 1944 Montgomery Ward catalog at $5.45.

The feathered eagle draws on the pre-Columbian iconography Spratling described as a point of departure for his work, where Aztec and Colonial motifs became the basis for new silver (Morrill, pdf p. 39).

The design's reach is documented on multiple fronts: Spratling also created a version for Silson to produce in silver plate, the licensing arrangement by which Silson, Inc. of New York was making his designs from 1941 (Morrill, p. 257), and his silver ran in the Montgomery Ward catalogs from 1943 to 1946.

Between its 1937-38 Brooklyn Museum showing, its Montgomery Ward pricing, its Silson version, and its place in two references, the feathered eagle is among the most fully documented of Spratling's first-period pins. This design has been reissued in sterling.