Teaspoon with Gold Circular Buttons Applied

Applied gold circular buttons set this teaspoon apart: the Gold Disc pattern, in which discs of gold are mounted against the silver. It was the most costly flatware Spratling offered and was available only by special order.

The gold disc against silver is a deliberate elevation of the applied-disc device Spratling used across his flatware, the precious-metal contrast reserved for his top line. A 1961 catalog lists the wholesale price at $13.20, rising to $17.60 by 1967, figures that mark it as the premium pattern.

The design is recorded in Cederwall and Riney's Spratling Silver and in Goddard's field guide. As a special-order pattern in two metals, Gold Disc flatware is among the scarcer Spratling table objects and reaches the market only rarely.