Deco Obsidian Arrow Brooch

A Deco stylized arrow of obsidian and silver, the two pieces of obsidian cut differently so that their light reflection creates strong contrast across the design. That deliberate play of cut against cut is the point, the native stone doing the expressive work through reflected light rather than color. A Spratling drawing of the brooch survives in the "William Spratling Folio of Drawings," and the piece is recorded across several references, including Morrill's "William Spratling and the Mexican Silver Renaissance" and the Centennial edition of "Spratling Silver."

The arrow was a motif Spratling worked extensively, its clean geometry suiting the Deco idiom that ran alongside his pre-Columbian designs. Cutting the obsidian to throw contrasting light is a refined use of the local stone he drew on from his earliest years.

That careful handling of native materials was characteristic of the workshop Spratling founded in Taxco in 1931, where designs were hand-wrought to his specification.

With a surviving drawing and a place in several references, the obsidian arrow is a well-documented example of how Spratling developed the arrow motif through the contrast of cut stone and silver.