Banded Rosewood Salad Spoon

A rosewood salad serving fork banded at the base of its handle with chased silver, the back of the bowl carved into a rosewood rat-tail, shows how Spratling brought design to even his flatware. The wood carries the form; the chased silver band and carved rat-tail are the points of refinement.

Salad servers were part of Spratling's documented table service, the kind of wood-and-silver flatware shown at the 1965 McNay exhibition of his work (Morrill, p. 77). This piece dates to the First Design Period (1931-1946).

It is documented in Montgomery Ward's Christmas Book 1943, recording the commercial reach Spratling's flatware found in that period (Morrill, p. 257).