Carved Silson Link Bracelet

A bracelet of five cast links carrying carvings, incised lines, and openwork, this Silson piece translates Spratling's worked-link vocabulary into the plated medium, each link bearing the kind of cut and pierced detail he used in solid silver. The linked construction and the carved surfaces give the bracelet its rhythm across the wrist.

The bracelet was produced in the early 1940s by Silson, the United States costume-jewelry maker that issued plated interpretations of Spratling motifs during the war years. It belongs to the wartime moment when his Mexican-inflected designs reached a mass American market through plated counterparts to the handwrought originals.

A cast Silson link bracelet documents the commercial reach of Spratling's designs beyond his Taxco workshop. For collectors the interest lies in the relationship between the plated Silson interpretation and the solid-silver work it echoes, marking the line between the workshop's handwrought silver and its licensed plated versions.