Beaded Rosewood Salad Spoon

Twelve silver beads run down the tapered rosewood handle of this salad-server spoon, the bright accents Spratling's catalogue called "encrusted nails" giving a plain wooden form its rhythm. The beads are measured along the taper, and the contrast of silver against rosewood carries the whole design.

The device of silver dots set into wood was part of Spratling's mature decorative language, lending his wooden objects both order and a touch of sophistication (Morrill, p. 73). Here it turns a utilitarian server into a considered piece of design.

The spoon was also produced in mahogany rather than rosewood, so it is one version within a small group, and it is the companion to the matching fork. It is recorded in Cederwall and Riney's Spratling Silver, and pieces of this kind come to market only occasionally.