Spoon with Silver Shovel Shaped Bowl and Rosewood Handle

A serving spoon with a shovel-shaped silver bowl and a rosewood handle is the kind of useful object Spratling designed with as much care as his jewelry. The shovel form of the bowl is purposeful: Spratling suggested it be used for sugar. It was made in two sizes, and this is the larger.

The combination of silver and rosewood, cool metal against warm wood, runs through Spratling's tableware, and the piece is recorded in Spratling Silver by Cederwall and Riney.

Functional pieces with their original wood intact and a documented appearance in the literature appeal to collectors building beyond jewelry, and the maker's stated intent for the form adds to its interest.