Provincial Covered Creamer

This covered creamer, in the Provincial pattern with six incised lines around its body and rosewood used for both handle and finial, belongs to a tea service of unusual documented standing: the complete set is held in the collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art. The incised banding and warm wood fittings are the pattern's signatures.

The design's reach is well recorded. The creamer and matching sugar wholesaled together at $40.80 in 1958-59 and $76.00 by 1967; the design was carried into the 1965 traveling exhibition "The World of William Spratling," and it was awarded a prize by the National Syndicate of Silver Manufacturers of Mexico. Few Spratling forms carry this combination of museum holding, exhibition history, and industry recognition.

The use of rosewood against silver follows the material contrast Morrill ties to Spratling's affinity with Puiforcat (p. 224).

The creamer is recorded in Cederwall and Riney's Spratling Silver and in South of the Border.