Scrolled Urn Vase

A flared urn-shaped vase, silver scrolls springing from each side, this is Spratling working a sculptural hollowware form rather than a serving piece. It belongs to the First Design Period of 1931 to 1946.

The scroll handles give the urn its profile, the curved silver elements reading against the flared body. An adaptation of the design was made mounting the vase on a square rosewood base with curved leaf-like straps in place of the side scrolls, evidence of the workshop habit of reworking a successful form into variants.

The vase is recorded in Penny Morrill's William Spratling and the Mexican Silver Renaissance: Maestros de Plata, the scholarship documenting Spratling's founding role in the Taxco silver revival. Sculptural silver hollowware from the early period is among the more sought-after parts of his surviving work and comes to market only occasionally.