Rectangular Box with Hinged LID

A silver rectangular box with a hinged lid, its top quartered by a group of four incised lines, carries a lengthwise applied bar inlaid with malachite and copper set diagonally in opposite corners and separated by equal silver segments. The result is a small, disciplined exercise in geometry and material contrast, the green stone and warm copper punctuating the silver.

From the Second Design Period, 1949 to 1951, a brief and transitional phase in Spratling's career, the box shows the inlay and incised-line vocabulary that he would carry further into his later holloware. The quartering lines are flat chasing, cincelar, the marking of silver with a hammered tool (Morrill, p. 15).

Worked in silver with malachite and copper inlay under the joined "WS" mark (Morrill, p. 39), the box is recorded in Morrill's Maestros de Plata. Its second-period date, documented design, and the integrity of the inlay are what anchor the piece.