Rosewood Handled Salt Spoon

A salt spoon with a round silver bowl and a faceted rosewood handle shows Spratling extending his design sense to the smallest objects of the table. The pairing of cool silver with warm, beveled wood is the point, a deliberate contrast of material and color in a piece that fits in the palm.

The spoon is recorded in the 1943 Montgomery Ward Christmas Book, placing it in the years when Spratling silver was carried in Montgomery Ward catalogues, from 1943 to 1946 (Morrill, p. 257), and reaching an American mail-order audience well beyond Taxco. It dates from the first design period.

Wood-handled flatware is a distinctive corner of the Spratling line, and a documented appearance in a period catalogue gives this small spoon a firm place in the record.