Brass Bead Letter Opener

Inset brass beads and fine incised lines on a silver blade make this letter opener a quiet example of how Spratling brought design discipline to even the smallest desk object. The contrast of brass against silver and the incised lines do all the work; there is no applied ornament beyond the worked surface itself.

Letter openers were part of Spratling's repertoire from early on, and incising, cincelar, the marking of silver with hammered tools, was among the techniques his silversmiths named for their craft (Morrill, p. 15). The piece dates to the First Design Period (1931-1946), when his vocabulary was still being built from worked surface and line.

It is recorded in Penny Morrill's Maestros de Plata, the standard scholarly reference for his work.