Rectangular Tin Box with Amber Glass

A rectangular tin box fitted with amber glass, its scalloped tin a typical element of Spratling's tinwork, this First Design Period object shows the workshop's folk-craft side in a warm-toned variant. The amber glass gives the box a glow that clear glass would not.

Tinwork was a documented part of Spratling's revival of Mexican crafts. His workshop produced frames, candlesticks, and other tin objects under the tinsmith Don Isidro Mejia (Morrill, Mexican Silver, 1994, p. 36), and scalloped tin was a signature treatment across that production.

The amber glass marks this as the colored-glass version of a design also made with clear glass, the kind of small material variation Spratling applied even to humble objects. The scalloped tin frames and holds the glass in a single decorative gesture.

Tin pieces survive in far smaller numbers than Spratling's silver, so a documented amber-glass tin box is a useful and relatively uncommon example of the workshop's folk-craft work.