Sabino Wood Inlay Tray

Inset silver circles, squares, and diamonds ring the rim of this long sabino wood tray, the geometric metal shapes scattered across the pale wood. It belongs to the Third Design Period of 1951 to 1967 and shows Spratling's inlay vocabulary at its most playful.

The inset geometric forms are a later development of the wood-and-silver pairing, the metal embedded as line and point rather than crowning the form. Similar trays were made in both smaller and larger sizes, up to thirty inches, indicating a model that ran as a family across scales.

The tray is recorded in Cederwall and Riney's Spratling Silver and in Goddard's field guide. Sabino-and-silver trays from the later period come to market only occasionally.