Frog Footed Ashtray

A small round silver ashtray standing on three frog feet, set on a triangular ebony base, this is a piece of Spratling's later domestic silver where a utilitarian object is given a quietly figural, witty footing. The frog feet and the contrast of pale metal against dark ebony are exactly the playful sophistication Morrill finds in his 1950s holloware (Morrill, p. 73).

From the Third Design Period, 1951 to 1967, the ashtray was included in "The World of William Spratling," the touring museum exhibition organized through the McNay Art Institute in 1965, whose inventory listed ashtrays among the objects shown (Morrill, p. 77).

Worked in the 980 silver Spratling preferred and marked with the joined "WS" (Morrill, p. 39), this is a documented exhibition object. Its 1965 showing, the frog-foot detail, and the condition of the ebony base define the piece.