Letter Opener with Tortoise Shell Handle

Function becomes ornament in this letter opener, where the silver rivets that fix a tortoise shell handle to its metal core are left visible and made part of the design rather than hidden away, set against a shaped silver blade.

The pairing of silver with tortoiseshell was something Spratling prized for its textural contrast. Morrill notes that in his work the emphasis fell on "the richness and textural contrast in the interplay of silver with tortoiseshell" (Morrill, p. 73), exactly the effect a translucent handle against a bright blade achieves here.

Letter openers were latecomers to the workshop's catalog. There were none in Spratling's wholesale catalogs until the December 1945 issue, released only months before the company's dissolution, which dates this piece firmly to the close of the First Design Period.

The letter opener is documented in Phyllis M. Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide.