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A diamond grid is incised across the whole skin of this domed-lid box, and a small round gold bead sits at every crossing, so the bright silver puckers like buttoned upholstery rendered in precious metal. The effect is carried entirely in the surface: the lattice pulls the eye into a soft, quilted relief while the beads catch a warm light against the cool sterling.
The body takes a barrel form, its curved lid hinged along the back and lifting to a plain, unadorned interior, so the ornament stays reserved for the outside where it reads. Boxes and other holloware were the quieter side of William Spratling's Taxco workshop, and this one shows that side at its most disciplined: a single repeated motif carried evenly over a rounded volume, restrained where it could easily have run busy.
It is struck WILLIAM SPRATLING TAXCO MEXICO .925 with the WS stamp and the eagle assay, placing it in the later sterling period of roughly 1956 to 1962. The two-tone scheme, yellow gold beads worked into bright sterling, is a measured luxury rather than a display of one.
The lattice box is a documented form in Spratling's output, made in only a small group, of which this barrel-shaped example is one. Built from one idea repeated with control, it is the holloware counterpart to the spare, confident design the workshop is known for.
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