William Spratling
Alaska Mask Necklace (Collar con máscara de Alaska)1949

Not on view

Dark metal pendant or brooch in the form of a stylized animal face with iridescent inlaid eye stones, suspended from a heavy rectangular-link chain

Silver necklace with a large pendant in the form of a stylized animal face, set with two oval turquoise stones as eyes, suspended from a flat bar-link chain.

Artist or Maker: William Spratling
United States, active Mexico, 1900-1967
Title: Alaska Mask Necklace (Collar con máscara de Alaska)
Place Made: Mexico, Taxco
Date Made: 1949
Medium: Silver, baleen from either a bowhead or blue whale, Alaskan or pinto abalone
Dimensions: Mask: 3 1/4 × 4 1/2 in. (8.26 × 11.43 cm) Chain length: 13 1/2 in. (34.29 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Penny Morrill
Accession Number: M.2013.5.1
Classification: Jewelry and Adornments
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Celebrated silver designer William Spratling created this necklace when the U.S. government commissioned him to develop a Native Alaskan craft industry based on local forms and materials. Spratling employed baleen for the nostrils and Alaskan or pinto abalone to emphasize the mask’s large eyes. Emulating the form of a Tlingit bear, the exaggerated eyes, brow, and mouth are typical of animal representations in Native Alaskan art, evident in an eighteenth-century kneeling figure (M.71.73.172) that was made by a Haida artist for the tourist trade.

Trained as an architect, Spratling moved from New Orleans to Taxco, Mexico, where he established his first silver workshop in 1931. Working alongside master silversmiths and local apprentices, in 1935 he opened his famed Taller de Las Delicias, which attracted a cohort of international artists, intellectuals, and Hollywood celebrities. Following his successes in Mexico, Spratling presented a plan to the U.S. Indian Arts and Crafts Board to launch a similar initiative in Alaska. He visited in August 1945 at the invitation of his friend, Ernest Gruening, the territory’s governor. In 1949, seven Alaskan World War II veterans arrived in Taxco to train at Spratling’s workshop. Although the project was ultimately abandoned due to lack of support from government agencies, Spratling created 200 prototypes that could be reproduced by Native artisans for the growing tourist market in Alaska. This bold necklace is one of the original prototypes and a record of this ambitious undertaking.

Rachel Kaplan

2024
Copyright: © artist or artist's estate

William Spratling
Alaska Mask Necklace (Collar con máscara de Alaska)1949

Not on view

Artist or Maker: William Spratling
United States, active Mexico, 1900-1967
Title: Alaska Mask Necklace (Collar con máscara de Alaska)
Place Made: Mexico, Taxco
Date Made: 1949
Medium: Silver, baleen from either a bowhead or blue whale, Alaskan or pinto abalone
Dimensions: Mask: 3 1/4 × 4 1/2 in. (8.26 × 11.43 cm) Chain length: 13 1/2 in. (34.29 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Penny Morrill
Accession Number: M.2013.5.1
Classification: Jewelry and Adornments
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Celebrated silver designer William Spratling created this necklace when the U.S. government commissioned him to develop a Native Alaskan craft industry based on local forms and materials. Spratling employed baleen for the nostrils and Alaskan or pinto abalone to emphasize the mask’s large eyes. Emulating the form of a Tlingit bear, the exaggerated eyes, brow, and mouth are typical of animal representations in Native Alaskan art, evident in an eighteenth-century kneeling figure (M.71.73.172) that was made by a Haida artist for the tourist trade.

Trained as an architect, Spratling moved from New Orleans to Taxco, Mexico, where he established his first silver workshop in 1931. Working alongside master silversmiths and local apprentices, in 1935 he opened his famed Taller de Las Delicias, which attracted a cohort of international artists, intellectuals, and Hollywood celebrities. Following his successes in Mexico, Spratling presented a plan to the U.S. Indian Arts and Crafts Board to launch a similar initiative in Alaska. He visited in August 1945 at the invitation of his friend, Ernest Gruening, the territory’s governor. In 1949, seven Alaskan World War II veterans arrived in Taxco to train at Spratling’s workshop. Although the project was ultimately abandoned due to lack of support from government agencies, Spratling created 200 prototypes that could be reproduced by Native artisans for the growing tourist market in Alaska. This bold necklace is one of the original prototypes and a record of this ambitious undertaking.

Rachel Kaplan

2024