Rosewood Handled Tea Strainer

Two rosewood handles set on opposite sides of a silver tea strainer resolve, in their placement, into the shape of a pre-Columbian arrow: a functional object given an ancient Mexican silhouette through the arrangement of its parts. The warm wood against the bright metal is a Spratling signature, here pressed into both use and reference.

The strainer belongs to the First Design Period, 1931 to 1946. The reading of an everyday utensil as a pre-Columbian form is exactly the translation Spratling made his method, taking ancient motifs and rendering them in usable modern objects (Morrill, p. 27).

Hand-wrought tableware combining silver with tropical hardwood survives in modest numbers from the first decade and is collected as an example of the workshop's table production.

Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles, California

Tea Strainer, circa 1931-1946

Accession M.2015.81.2. Official museum record Photo: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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