Simple Circular Silver Ashtray with Three Looped Handles

Three looped handles lift a simple circular ashtray that shows Spratling's confidence in plain form: the looped handles are the only flourish, and the broad expanse of hand-raised silver is left undecorated. Ashtrays were a standard part of his holloware program.

Such functional silver objects were shown in the 1965 McNay survey of his work alongside his cigarette boxes and trays (Morrill, p. 77). By the Third Design Period (1951-1967), this kind of unornamented, well-proportioned utility object was firmly within his range.