  Using early-release data from the JWST, Mowla et al. and Claeyssens et al.
recently measured various properties for gravitationally lensed compact sources
(`sparkles') around the `Sparkler' galaxy at a redshift of 1.378 (a look-back
time of 9.1 Gyr). Here, we focus on the Mowla et al. as they were able to break
the age-metallicity degeneracy and derive independent ages, metallicities and
extinctions for each source. They identified 5 metal-rich, old GC candidates
(with formation ages up to $\sim$13 Gyr). We examine the age--metallicity
relation (AMR) for the GC candidates and other Sparkler compact sources. The
Sparkler galaxy, which has a current estimated stellar mass of 10$^9$
M$_{\odot}$, is compared to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the disrupted
dwarf galaxy Gaia--Enceladus and the Milky Way (MW). The Sparkler galaxy
appears to have undergone very rapid chemical enrichment in the first few
hundred Myr after formation, with its GC candidates similar to those of the
MW's metal-rich subpopulation. We also compare the Sparkler to theoretical AMRs
and formation ages from the E-MOSAICS simulation, finding the early formation
age of its GCs to be in some tension with these predictions for MW-like
galaxies. The metallicity of the Sparkler's star forming regions are more akin
to a galaxy of stellar mass $\ge$ 10$^{10.5}$ M$_{\odot}$, i.e. at the top end
of the expected mass growth over 9.1 Gyr of cosmic time. We conclude that the
Sparkler galaxy may represent a progenitor of a MW-like galaxy, even including
the ongoing accretion of a satellite galaxy.
