Oval Pillow Shaped Box Studded with Gold Balls

An oval pillow-shaped box studded with gold balls at the intersections of incised diagonal lines, this piece shows Spratling using a precious-metal accent to articulate a simple silver form. The incised diagonals create a grid across the rounded lid, and the gold balls mark each crossing, turning a plain box into a worked, jewel-like object.

The device of small applied spheres punctuating a surface was one Spratling used across his later work; the silver dots he set on wood in this period gave his pieces a comparable sense of rhythm and sophistication (Morrill, p. 73). Here the spheres are gold, raising the register of a third-period object.

The box is recorded in Cederwall and Riney's Spratling Silver, which documents the range of his hollowware. Pillow boxes with gold-ball detailing come to market only occasionally, and the precious-metal accents distinguish this example within the group.