Banded Rosewood Salad Fork

A rosewood salad fork with an incised silver band at the base of the handle, the back carved with a rat tail, this serving piece marries worked wood to a single bright metal accent. The incised silver band marks the transition on the handle, and the carved rat tail along the back adds a traditional flatware detail rendered in wood.

The pairing of silver against dark wood belongs to Spratling's interest in setting metal against organic material across his pieces (Morrill, p. 73). Here the silver is reduced to a single band, letting the rosewood and its carving carry the rest.

The fork is recorded in The Christmas Book 1943 by Montgomery Ward, the channel that placed Spratling's first-period designs before a wide American audience (Morrill, p. 53). Wood-and-silver serving pieces of this kind come to market only occasionally.