Footed Square Ashtray

A square silver ashtray centered on an applied silver disc, raised on four legs of rosewood or ebony, this object brings Spratling's design attention to a smoking accessory. It belongs to the Third Design Period of 1951 to 1967 and was included in the touring exhibit The World of William Spratling in 1965.

The applied disc and the wood legs are both standard Spratling devices, the disc patterning the silver field and the dark legs lifting the form in the wood-and-silver manner of his hollowware. The earliest examples used rosewood legs, with later ones, like the ebony-footed examples, marking the model's evolution.

The ashtray is documented in Cederwall and Riney's Spratling Silver and in Goddard's field guide, catalogued at $11.20 in 1961 and $12.00 by 1967. An exhibited table accessory of this kind comes to market only occasionally.