Monkey Brooch Inset with Tortoise Shell

A monkey brooch inset with tortoise shell is Spratling at his most playful, the animal reduced to a lively silhouette whose body carries a panel of warm, mottled shell against the silver. The tortoise-shell inset is the same material contrast he worked across boxes and necklaces, here giving a small creature its color and texture.

The design was made in both a left-facing and a right-facing version, so orientation is a recognized variant rather than a tell of authenticity. The brooch is recorded in Morrill's William Spratling and the Mexican Silver Renaissance: Maestros de Plata. A clean original with its tortoise shell intact, read by its hallmark, is the documented piece.