Demitasse Spoon with Rosewood Handle Was One of Spratling

This silver demitasse spoon with a rosewood handle was among Spratling's earliest designs, and its history reaches beyond the table: the model was one of nineteen Spratling pieces shown at the Brooklyn Museum's exhibition Contemporary Industrial and Handwrought Silver, held from November 1937 to January 1938.

The wood-and-silver pairing that became Spratling's signature is already fully formed here, the dark rosewood handle set against the bright bowl. As one of his earliest designs it documents the vocabulary he would carry forward for three decades, present from the start of the First Design Period.

The exhibition record is unusually specific. A December 1937 letter from Louise Chase of the museum's Industrial Art Department reported that the case containing Spratling's silver was among the most admired in the show, the flatware shown against a dark red woolen ground that toned with the wood handles, and noted that as the only Mexican craftsmanship in the exhibit it had drawn considerable attention.

That early institutional notice is part of why Spratling is credited as the founder of the Taxco silver revival. A documented exhibition piece from the founding years carries weight beyond its modest scale.