Frame with a Center Section That Rotates Outward

A silver frame with a center section that rotates outward, built to hold a regular pack of cigarettes, this is William Spratling solving a small functional problem with mechanical wit. On this example the applied disc is beryllium-copper, though Spratling's own catalog described the material on the design as "bronce."

The holder belongs to his First Design Period (1931 to 1946), the early years of the Taxco revival. Spratling, the American who arrived in 1926 and became the central figure in reviving Taxco's silver industry, established the Taller de Las Delicias and trained the generation that built the Taxco school. A pivoting cigarette holder is that workshop's invention applied to a piece of period daily life.

The discrepancy between the catalog's "bronce" and the beryllium-copper actually used is a reminder that Spratling's documentary record and the surviving objects do not always align material for material. For a collector, this rotating cigarette holder is a mechanically clever, distinctly period example of his first-period smoking accessories.