Ornate Candelabra with Heavy Silver Vase

A pair of two-armed candelabra set to flank a low silver vase, this is hollowware conceived as a tableau rather than a single object, the kind of architectural dining piece Spratling's third-period workshop produced for a market that had come to expect sculpture for the table. Recorded in Phyllis Goddard's Spratling Silver field guide, the design carried a 1961 wholesale price of $60, rising to $76 by 1967.

The form belongs to the candleholders and tableware Spratling kept in production through the early 1960s, ebony grounding the silver in the dark-wood-against-metal contrast he favored throughout the period. Made over roughly eight years, few examples are known.

The design was among the pieces gathered for "The World of William Spratling," the exhibition organized by John Leeper of the McNay Art Institute that opened in March 1965 and traveled to several U.S. museums, where Spratling's silver was shown alongside his Pre-Columbian collection and the work of friends such as Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias (Morrill, p. 77).

As a flanking set rather than a single holder, it comes to market only occasionally, and its inclusion in the 1965 traveling exhibition places it among the objects Spratling himself chose to represent his work.