Domed Silver Candlestick

A dome-shaped silver candlestick, close kin to the version Spratling executed in silver and rosewood, this piece centers an applied silver disc on each of its four sides and sets four small silver balls beneath the bobeche. The applied-disc motif on a pared, simple body is exactly the vocabulary Morrill identifies in Spratling's later holloware, where circles and dots lend the work playfulness and sophistication (Morrill, p. 73).

The candlestick was included in "The World of William Spratling," the touring museum exhibition organized through the McNay Art Institute that crossed the United States in 1965, where candleholders were among the silver objects on view (Morrill, p. 77). It is recorded in Morrill's Maestros de Plata.

Worked in the 980 silver Spratling preferred over sterling and marked with the joined "WS" (Morrill, p. 39), this is a documented exhibition object. Its appearance in the literature and the 1965 show are the anchors for the piece.