Rounded Rectangular Silver Pillbox

A rounded rectangular pillbox with a detachable, center-domed lid, this is a small object from Spratling's first design period, the years between 1931 and 1946 when the workshop was establishing the vocabulary of pared-down geometric form that would define his hollowware.

The pillbox carries no applied ornament; its interest lies in the proportion of the rounded rectangle and the quiet swell of the domed lid, the same reduction to essential outline Morrill describes in Spratling's smaller objects of the period (Morrill, p. 73).

A modest, functional piece, it shows the early workshop's confidence with simple forms rather than decoration.