Conquistador Silver Plate

The Discos plate pattern, built on the flat silver disc, was one of Spratling's adaptable tableware designs, made in 7-, 9-, and 12-inch sizes and carried in his wholesale catalogs through the 1950s. The same Discos vocabulary was applied across a family of objects, oval bowls, ashtrays, a tray, a teapot, sugar and creamer, and a sauce spoon, so a single design language unified a whole service.

This design was produced both by Spratling and by Conquistador, the firm with which Spratling signed a contract in 1949 to provide designs and models for a new line of "Spratling Silver in Mexico" (Morrill, p. 257). That dual production matters for attribution, since the same pattern could leave either shop.

The plate is recorded in Goddard's field guide. Reading the hallmark is what assigns a given example to Spratling's own taller or to the Conquistador line.