Salt Shaker Has an Applied Wrapped Wire Silver Band

A salt shaker, called a "caster" in Spratling's catalog, finished with an applied band of wrapped silver wire shows him giving a small functional vessel a single piece of considered ornament, the coiled wire encircling the body where it would otherwise be plain. The wrapped wire belongs to the vocabulary of coiled and corded silver that runs through his work from the early years.

The shaker is recorded in Morrill and Berk's Mexican Silver. The design has been reissued, so a period original is identified by its hallmark and the character of the handwork against the later production.