Ebony Tall Box with Detachable LID

A tall ebony box with a detachable lid, crowned by a silver monkey and inset across its body with silver squares, diamonds, and circles, this is Spratling's later holloware at its most playful, the geometric silver inlay set into dark wood that Morrill names as central to his 1950s objects, here topped with a figure (Morrill, p. 73). The monkey gives the piece its character; the inlaid geometry gives it its discipline.

From the Third Design Period, 1951 to 1967, the box was included in "The World of William Spratling," the museum exhibition organized by John Leeper of the McNay Art Institute that toured the United States in 1965, where boxes were among the silver objects on view (Morrill, p. 77). It is recorded in Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide.

Worked with 980 silver under the joined "WS" mark (Morrill, p. 39), this is a documented, exhibited design. The silver monkey, the inlay, and the 1965 record are its anchors, with the condition of the ebony body a key consideration.

Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles, CaliforniaOn view

Box with Monkey Motif, 1956-1962

Accession M.2015.190.1a-b. Official museum record Photo: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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