Salad Server Fork of Silver with Projections at the Neck

This salad-server fork, with projections worked at the neck, carries an exhibition history few flatware pieces can claim: with its matching spoon, and bearing the early "WS print" hallmark, it was among nineteen Spratling pieces shown at the Brooklyn Museum's "Contemporary Industrial & Handwrought Silver," held from November 1937 to January 1938. The museum's own correspondence singled the silver out, noting it was the only Mexican craftsmanship in the exhibit and had drawn "a great deal of attention and admiration."

That early institutional recognition matters: the Brooklyn showing came as Spratling's Las Delicias workshop was establishing the Taxco silver revival on an international footing. The fork later reached a far wider audience, sold as part of a salad set through Montgomery Ward in 1943 at $15.00 ($30.00 the set).

A version of the same design with a chased handle was also produced. The fork is recorded in Morrill and Berk's Mexican Silver and in The Christmas Book 1943 by Montgomery Ward.