Amethyst Eagle Brooch

A silver eagle set beside a cabochon amethyst, the bird and the stone composed as a pair, the purple cabochon balancing the modeled silver figure. The eagle belongs to the pre-Columbian and figural repertoire Spratling worked throughout his first design period, the amethyst supplying color against the metal. The brooch is recorded in Morrill and Berk's "Mexican Silver" and Goddard's field guide.

The eagle drew on the Aztec iconography Spratling described as a point of departure for his early work, where native motifs became the basis for new silver (Morrill, pdf p. 39). Amethyst was among the stones he returned to most often.

Made at the Taller de Las Delicias he founded in Taxco in 1931, the brooch pairs a native motif with a favored stone in a single composition. Its place in two references makes it a documented example of Spratling's figural first-period jewelry.