Ebony Base Gallery Tray

An ebony base carries the silver gallery of this tray, the raised rim finished with a rolled edge, a piece from the Third Design Period of 1951 to 1967. The construction inverts the usual hierarchy, the dark wood forming the body while silver becomes the framing gallery.

The ebony-and-silver pairing is Spratling's signature material contrast, here resolved on a serving tray with the wood as ground and the metal as edge. The rolled rim is a clean, modern finish characteristic of his later hollowware.

The tray is recorded in Goddard's Spratling Silver: A Field Guide. Ebony-and-silver trays from the later period surface only occasionally.