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A tin wall sconce holding a single candle, this is a piece of Spratling production in a humble, locally worked material rather than silver. Tin was an everyday metal in Mexican craft, and a sconce in tin shows Spratling's workshop applying its sensibility to functional objects well outside the precious-metal range it is best known for.
The single-candle holder is reduced to its essential function, the form spare and utilitarian. As an inexpensive wall light, it represents the broader, more accessible end of Spratling's output.
The sconce is recorded in Phyllis Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide, which documents the range of Spratling production beyond silver. Tin pieces of this kind come to market only occasionally.
Sconce
Accession WC2012.08.2.2. Official museum record Photo: The Wolfsonian-FIU.
Verified against each institution's own collection records. All museum collections
Museum of Mexican Silver. “Single Candle Tin Sconce.” Catalog no. MoMS-000945. https://museumofmexicansilver.com/pieces/spratling-1536
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William Spratling
Ornate Candelabra with Heavy Silver Vase
Third Design Period: 1951 - 1967
Silver
