Heavy Knife with Ivory Inset

A heavy knife with an ivory inset, shaped like a fishing knife, is among the pieces that most directly reflect Spratling's Alaskan experience. In 1948 and 1949 he designed roughly two hundred models for an Alaska craft project, working with native materials including ivory, abalone, and malachite (Morrill, pp. 66-67); a substantial ivory-handled blade of this kind carries that work back into his own production. It is recorded in Spratling Silver, its Centennial Edition, and Phyllis Goddard's field guide.

The pairing of heavy silver with a panel of ivory gives the knife both weight and warmth, the form rugged rather than delicate.

The Alaska connection makes this one of the more historically resonant objects in the line, and its appearance across three major references anchors it firmly in the record.

Museo Franz MayerMexico City, MexicoOn view

Cuchillo para queso (cheese knife), 1947-1967

Photo: Museum of Mexican Silver, taken in-gallery at Museo Franz Mayer, February 2026.

Verified against each institution's own collection records. All museum collections