Rosewood Legged Ashtray

A round silver ashtray resting on three curled rosewood legs, this piece marries metal and wood in the manner that defined Spratling's third design period. The silver dish floats above the dark, scrolling legs, and the contrast of cool metal against warm wood is the whole of the design, an idea Spratling pursued across his later hollowware where wood and silver were set in deliberate dialogue.

The same model was also made with ebony in place of rosewood, so the piece belongs to a small family distinguished by the choice of wood. Its catalog history is well recorded: the wholesale price ran from $8.80 in 1958-59 to $9.60 in 1961 and $16.80 by 1967, tracking the rising value of the design over a decade.

The ashtray's standing is reinforced by its inclusion in the 1965 traveling U.S. museum exhibition "The World of William Spratling," which placed his work before a national audience. It is recorded in Cederwall and Riney's Spratling Silver and in Phyllis Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide.

With its documented exhibition history, its catalog record, and its place in the published literature, this is a well-anchored example of Spratling's mature wood-and-silver hollowware.