Sauce Spoon with Pierced Decoration and Incised Lines

Pierced decoration and incised lines work together across this sauce spoon, combining two of Spratling's standard surface devices on a single serving form. The calado, or pierced silverwork, was a recognized Taxco technique that Spratling used throughout his flatware.

A drawing of a very similar design survives in the William Spratling Folio of Drawings, tying the model to his documented design process. The pierced and incised treatment gives the spoon both ornament and a sense of lightness.

The piece is recorded in Morrill's William Spratling and the Mexican Silver Renaissance: Maestros de Plata and in Goddard's field guide. Pierced serving spoons of this kind come to market only occasionally.