Bowl with Porringer Handle

A porringer handle gives this silver bowl its identity, the flat pierced ear projecting from the rim in a form borrowed from traditional European hollowware. It belongs to the First Design Period of 1931 to 1946.

The handle was a shape Spratling reused: the same design appears on a tea strainer, evidence of the workshop practice in which a successful element migrated across functions to give the line coherence. Recognizing such shared forms is part of how Spratling's output is read.

Early hollowware from the founding decade of the Taxco revival is among the more sought-after parts of his surviving work.