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A bottle opener of silver and ebony, carrying a feathered-serpent seal on one side and an inset silver disc on the other. The two faces are the design: a pre-Columbian motif on one, a clean geometric disc on the other, with the dark ebony grounding the whole. It is recorded in Goddard's field guide, "Spratling Silver: Recognizing a William Spratling Treasure."
The feathered serpent, drawn from the Aztec vocabulary Spratling described as a point of departure for his work (Morrill, pdf p. 39), turns a utilitarian tool into a carrier of native iconography. Barware of this kind was a substantial part of the workshop's third-period output.
The pairing of silver with ebony belongs to Spratling's broader practice of contrasting the reflective metal with warm dark woods. Setting a pre-Columbian seal against a plain disc, the opener balances his two design registers in a single functional object collected for both its motif and its craft.
Museum of Mexican Silver. “Feathered Serpent Bottle Opener.” Catalog no. MoMS-000679. https://museumofmexicansilver.com/pieces/spratling-33
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William Spratling
Amethyst Tulip Brooch
First Design Period: 1931 - 1946
Silver
