Silver Service Cream Pitcher

This cream pitcher belongs to a coffee and tea service whose making is documented in Spratling's own hand. His October 1945 notes - marked "importante" - set out instructions for fabricating the service, and his drawings show the detail of the handle and the silver-wire banding that runs through it, the same banding Spratling used in earlier and later designs. Few pieces are tied so directly to the maker's working method.

Both the handle and lid finial are worked in finely carved rosewood, the warm wood against silver in the manner Morrill associates with Spratling's affinity for Puiforcat (p. 224). The timing matters: Spratling resigned from Spratling y Artesanos in July 1945 but agreed to supply roughly sixty-five new designs (Morrill, p. 257), and this service was among them.

Because Spratling y Artesanos declared bankruptcy and ceased operations in 1946, few of these services are believed to have been produced - making surviving examples scarce.

The piece is recorded in Cederwall and Riney's Spratling Silver, Centennial Edition and in Goddard's field guide.