Scalloped Vegetable Bowl with Flat Rim Outlined with Rope

A scalloped vegetable bowl with a flat rim outlined in a rope border shows Spratling's First Period instinct to take a plain serving form and define it with a single, confident piece of edging. The twisted rope, one of his earliest borrowed motifs, here frames the rim and gives the scalloped body its finish.

The shape echoes the one used on his large meat platter, so the bowl belongs to a coordinated table service rather than standing alone. Worked entirely in silver, it relies on form and the rope edge rather than applied ornament. As a First Design Period piece, attribution rests on the early hallmark and the character of the handwork.