Simple Shaped Silver Ring

A simple shaped silver ring marked only by incised lines at its top and bottom, this piece makes its case through restraint, the two engraved lines giving a plain band just enough definition to read as designed rather than blank. The incised detail is the whole of its ornament, a minimal gesture on an otherwise unadorned form.

The ring dates to Spratling's First Design Period, 1931 to 1946, and was offered in the 1943 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog for $2.95, appearing as well in the Fall 1944 and Spring 1944 Montgomery Ward catalogs. That repeated listing places it firmly within his wartime arrangement with Montgomery Ward, when his handwrought silver reached a national mail-order audience (Morrill, p. 53).

An inexpensive incised ring offered across multiple Montgomery Ward catalogs is a clear record of the accessible end of Spratling's wartime output, the simple designs that brought Taxco silver to a broad American market. Its documentation across several catalog seasons makes it one of the better-anchored of his modest early pieces.