Whimsical Bird Ashtray

A tall, whimsical bird ashtray with a hand-hammered body and wire legs is one of the more playful objects to come out of the early Taxco workshop, a functional piece given real personality. The hammered surface keeps the marks of the hand that raised it, while the thin wire legs lift the body into a comic, attentive posture. The piece is recorded in Phyllis Goddard's Spratling field guide.

It dates from the first design period, 1931 to 1946, the founding years of Spratling's Las Delicias taller. Humor and utility sit together easily in a piece like this.

Figural holloware of this kind, where an everyday object becomes a small sculpture, is a sought-after corner of the Spratling output, and the surviving hand-hammered surface is part of its charm.