Softwood Bowl with Various Sized Inset Silver Circles

Various sizes of silver circles are inset into the surface of this softwood bowl, the discs scattered across the pale wood like points of light. It dates to the First Design Period of 1931 to 1946 and shows Spratling's habit of letting an inset silver element animate an otherwise plain wooden body.

The inlay of silver into wood is a quieter cousin of the wood-and-silver hollowware Spratling built his reputation on, the metal here embedded in the surface rather than crowning the form. Worked into softwood, the contrast is gentler than in his ebony-and-silver pieces but follows the same logic.

Early mixed-material objects of this kind are among the more personal survivals from Spratling's founding decade and come to market only occasionally.