Oval Carved Ebony Cigarette Holder

Wide concave bands of carved ebony spiral around this cigarette holder, set off by diagonal bands of silver beads: the dark tropical wood and the bright metal run together across the oval body in alternating diagonals. The pairing of ebony with silver beadwork is a Spratling signature, here organized into a brisk, repeating geometry.

The object belongs to the workshop's range of personal smoking accessories, hand-worked in the same vocabulary of wood-and-silver contrast that runs through the hollowware. The carved concave bands give the surface depth, the beads supplying the highlight.

The piece is recorded in Phyllis M. Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide. Smoking accessories combining carved hardwood with silver survive in modest numbers and are collected as period objects of the workshop.