Silson Pill Box Pendant

A pill box in silver-plated pot metal, fitted with a ring so it could hang from a chain, this is a Silson piece, made under the arrangement by which Spratling licensed his designs to Victor Silson for production in plated metal rather than the silver of his own workshop. The functional pill box was a recurring Spratling idea, and seeing it executed in Silson's mass-market material is what gives this example its documentary interest.

The Silson relationship is part of the record of Spratling's career: by 1941 Silson, Inc. of New York was producing his designs, the patents having been registered in 1940-41 (Morrill, p. 257). These pieces extended his motifs to a far broader American audience.

With no recorded reference and the plated material itself the main fact, this is best understood as an example of that licensing chapter rather than of the hand-wrought Taxco output. The Silson pieces are collected precisely for the contrast they document.