Glass Panel Tin Sconce

A wall sconce of black-painted tin fitted with three glass panels, this piece sits well outside the silver work for which Spratling is known, in the humble tin-and-glass craft tradition the workshop also drew on. The painted tin and glazed panels would have thrown candlelight through the openings, a lighting object as much as a decorative one.

Tin pieces remind us that Spratling's Taxco enterprise engaged the full range of local materials and crafts, not silver alone.

The sconce is recorded in Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide. Tin objects are an uncommon corner of the maker's recorded output.