Silver Disc Salad Bowl

Inset silver discs ring the top edge of this wooden salad bowl, the bright metal punctuating the mahogany in a motif Spratling returned to again and again.

Morrill identifies silver dots on wood as a motif he "used extensively" in his later period, giving the pieces "a sense of playfulness and sophistication" (Morrill, p. 73). On a salad bowl the idea moves from jewelry into the dining room, the discs catching light around the rim of an otherwise plain form.

The bowl belongs to the Third Design Period, 1951 to 1967, and was made in more than one size, a sign of a design that found a steady audience. Wood-and-silver holloware of this kind reflects Spratling's lifelong combining of warm natural materials with metal.