Salt Shaker with Incised Swirls and Balls on Base

Incised swirls run around the body of this silver salt shaker, with applied balls anchoring the base, a small all-silver object that carries the hand-finished surface treatment of Spratling's earliest Taxco years. It dates to the First Design Period of 1931 to 1946, the founding decade of the silver revival Spratling launched in Taxco.

The incised line and the applied silver ball are both elemental Spratling devices, used here on a utilitarian table object rather than on jewelry. That an everyday shaker received this attention reflects the workshop ethos of the early period, when handwork rather than machine finishing defined the output.

The shaker is one of a set. Early all-silver tableware from this period is the scarcer end of Spratling's surviving domestic work and comes to market only occasionally.