Swirled Wire Candlesticks

Swirled wire rising from a rimmed base, with small silver beads seated where each wire begins, gives these candlesticks an airy, drawn quality unusual in a holloware form. The wire does the structural and decorative work at once, and the little beads, formed by melting wire rings, are a hand technique Spratling's smiths described (Morrill, p. 36).

Candlesticks were produced in his workshop from its earliest years (Morrill, p. 36), and the swirled-wire treatment turns the metal itself into the ornament rather than applying decoration to a solid form.

The candlesticks are recorded in Penny Morrill's Maestros de Plata and Phyllis Goddard's Spratling Silver field guide.