William Spratling
William Spratling was the catalytic figure of the Taxco silver renaissance, an American architect, writer, and designer who founded Taller de Las Delicias in Taxco in 1931. He organized Pre-Columbian motifs, colonial forms, and modernist abstraction into a system of bold, handwrought silver: jewelry, hollowware, flatware, and decorative objects. His workshop trained the generation that defined Taxco, including Héctor Aguilar, Antonio Pineda, the Castillo brothers, and Salvador Terán.
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William Spratling was the catalytic figure of the Taxco Silver Renaissance: an American architect, writer, designer, and cultural entrepreneur who helped turn a colonial mining town into the twentieth century’s most important center of modern silver design. He arrived in Mexico in the 1920s, moved within the circle of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Frances Toor, Dwight Morrow, and other postrevolutionary cultural figures, and founded Taller de Las Delicias in Taxco in 1931.
Spratling’s importance lies less in inventing Mexican silverwork than in organizing it into a modern design system. He drew on Pre-Columbian motifs, colonial forms, local craft, and modernist abstraction, then translated them into bold, handwrought jewelry, hollowware, flatware, and decorative objects. He trained the generation that would define Taxco: Aguilar, Pineda, Los Castillo, Terán, and others all emerged in relation to his workshop.
His work gave Taxco silver its first international vocabulary: heavy gauge, strong silhouettes, visible handwork, high silver content, clear hallmarks, and Mexican identity rendered as modern design. Spratling was not simply a maker. He was the movement’s architect: the figure who fused craft, tourism, nationalism, export commerce, and artistic ambition into a school.
Works designed by William Spratling are held in the collections of the Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
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961 cataloged works by William Spratling
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Quick facts
- Name
- William Spratling
- Role
- Founder of the Taxco silver renaissance
- Workshop
- Taller de Las Delicias, Taxco (founded 1931)
- Known for
- Heavy-gauge handwrought silver, Pre-Columbian motifs, hollowware and flatware
- Principal marks
- WS with Taxco 925/980 (1933-38); Spratling Silver (1940-46)
- Trained or influenced
- Héctor Aguilar, Antonio Pineda, Los Castillo, Salvador Terán
Museum collections
329 individually documented silver works by William Spratling in 27 public collections; institutions report 1,599 further works not yet indexed individually; 69 related works in other media (paintings, prints, drawings, archives).
- Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles, California
106 documented works · 10 works in other media, on view
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American IndianWashington, United States
67 documented works · 21 works in other media
- Museo Franz MayerMexico City, Mexico
37 documented works · 1,583 further reported · 6 works in other media, on view
- The Wolfsonian-FIUMiami Beach, United States
30 documented works · 4 works in other media
- Museum of Fine Arts, BostonBoston, United States
26 documented works · 1 work in other media, on view
- The Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York, United States
25 documented works
- Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn UniversityAuburn, United States
10 documented works
- The Historic New Orleans CollectionNew Orleans, United States
6 documented works
- Museum of International Folk Art, Santa FeSanta Fe, United States
4 documented works
- Art Institute of ChicagoChicago
3 documented works
- Brooklyn MuseumNew York, United States
3 documented works
- Minneapolis Institute of ArtMinneapolis, United States
2 documented works · 1 work in other media
- Cincinnati Art MuseumCincinnati, United States
2 documented works
- Dallas Museum of ArtDallas, United States
2 documented works
- Philadelphia Museum of ArtPhiladelphia, United States
1 documented work · 7 works in other media
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design MuseumNew York, United States
1 documented work
- Georgia Museum of ArtAthens, United States
1 documented work
- Mingei International Museum, San DiegoSan Diego, United States
1 documented work
- Museum of Arts and DesignNew York, United States
1 documented work
- Yale University Art GalleryNew Haven, United States
1 documented work
- The Latin American Library, Tulane UniversityNew Orleans, United States
15 further reported
- Milwaukee Art MuseumMilwaukee, United States
1 further reported
- McNay Art MuseumSan Antonio, United States
10 works in other media
- Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane UniversityNew Orleans, United States
4 works in other media
- The Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland, United States
3 works in other media
- Auburn University Special Collections and ArchivesAuburn, United States
1 work in other media
- Louisiana State MuseumNew Orleans, United States
1 work in other media
Questions
How can you identify William Spratling silver?
By the marks and the construction. Early pieces carry WS marks with Taxco and a 925 or 980 fineness stamp (1933-38); later production is marked Spratling Silver, often with Made in Mexico (1940-46). The work itself is heavy gauge, visibly handwrought, with strong silhouettes drawn from Pre-Columbian and colonial sources. Compare your mark against the chronology on this page.
What hallmarks did William Spratling use?
The main sequence runs from WS with Taxco and 925 or 980 fineness marks in 1933-38, to the printed Spratling Silver mark of 1940-46, often accompanied by Made in Mexico. The full mark chronology with photographs is documented below.
When was Taller de Las Delicias active?
Spratling founded Taller de Las Delicias in Taxco in 1931, after arriving in Mexico in the 1920s and moving in the circle of Diego Rivera and other postrevolutionary cultural figures.
How is Spratling connected to the other Taxco makers?
Nearly all of them passed through his orbit. Héctor Aguilar managed Las Delicias before founding Taller Borda; Antonio Pineda trained within Spratling's circle; the Castillo brothers and Salvador Terán emerged from the first generation Las Delicias trained.
Further Reading
Dispatch · April 27, 2026
How Rare Is William Spratling, Anyways?
Spratling is the most famous name in twentieth-century Mexican silver. Las Delicias was, in its peak years, the largest silver workshop in Mexico. None of that means his pieces are easy to find today. Across the 2,094 named-Spratling lots that have crossed a published auction since 2007, the median clears at $750, the top decile at $2,600, and only fourteen have ever cleared $10,000. Production was numerous. Survival is not.
Dispatch · April 21, 2026
The Jill and Byron Crawford Collection at Bonhams
One couple's Taxco Golden Age jewelry, 119 lots across every major workshop of the era, cleared through two Bonhams sales in 2022 and 2023. The results are a cleaner benchmark for the middle of the market than collectors remember.
Market Trends
Total Sales
1,756
Total Volume
$1.7M
Peak Year
2022 · $271k
Trend
+13% / yr
Total auction volume by year.
Mark Chronology
Taxco · WS · 925
WS · 980
Taxco · WS · 980
Taxco · WS · 980
WS · Taxco · Mexico
Taxco · Mexico · WS · 925
Spratling Silver
Made in Mexico · Spratling Silver
WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico · 980
WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico · Spratling Silver
WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico · Spratling Silver
WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico
WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico · Spratling Silver
Spratling Silver · WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico
Spratling Silver · WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico · Reg. 12778
WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico · Sterling
Spratling de Mexico · Sterling
Spratling de Mexico · Sterling · Eagle 13
WS (script) · 925 · Eagle 30
William Spratling · .925 · WS · Taxco·Mexico · Eagle 30
SONJ · Press Dinner · 1964 · Eagle 30
William Spratling · .925 · WS · Taxco·Mexico · Eagle 30
William Spratling · .925 · WS square · Taxco·Mexico · Eagle 63
WS (script) · Eagle 63
.925 · WS script square · ·Taxco·Mexico· · 1737 · Eagle 1
WS · Pat. Pend. · Spratling of Mexico · ·Silson Inc·
WS · Spratling of Mexico · ·Silson Inc·
WS (on wood)
WS (on wood)
WS (on wood)
Taxco · WS (large) · Mexico
Taxco · WS · Mexico
Taxco · WS · Mexico
18K · WS
William Spratling · Taxco Mexico · WS · 925
William Spratling · Taxco Mexico · WS · 980
Post card of William Spratling's shop, early 1930s
980 · Taxco · Mexico · WS (sans serif)
Taxco · WS (sans serif) · 980
WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico · Spratling Silver
Spratling silver · WS · Spratling · Made in Mexico
Spratling · Silver
Spratling de Mexico · Sterling
Detail of the mark MoMS-M-0889
WS script circle, large S (inset in wood)
.925 · WS square · Taxco·Mexico
WS · Hotel Pierre Marques (on silver plate)
William Spratling jewelry pouches
Hallmark Gallery
Work Examples
