Rosewood Box with Detachable Lid

A rosewood box with a detachable lid, its concave center inset with a silver and amethyst conch shell, this object joins the workshop's hardwood-and-silver vocabulary to a small figural ornament drawn from the natural world. The shell, set into the wood and accented with amethyst, becomes the box's chief event.

The piece dates to the Third Design Period of 1951 to 1967, the years Spratling continued to pair native hardwood with silver and applied ornament. The combination of wood ground, silver figure, and amethyst accent is characteristic of the playful, sophisticated direction Morrill describes in the workshop's later objects (Morrill, p. 73). It stands as a representative example of that late hollowware.