William Spratling

William Spratling (September 22, 1900 – August 7, 1967) was an American-born silver designer and artist, best known for his influence on 20th century Mexican silver design.

Spratling was born in 1900 in Sonyea, Livingston County, New York, the son of epileptologist William P. Spratling.

After the deaths of Spratling's mother and sister, he moved to his father's boyhood home outside of Auburn, Alabama.

Spratling graduated from Auburn High School and the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (currently known as Auburn University), where he majored in architecture.

Upon graduation, Spratling took a position as an instructor in the architecture department at Auburn University, and in 1921 he was offered a similar position at Tulane University's School of Architecture in New Orleans, Louisiana.

At the same time, he was an active participant at the New Orleans Arts and Crafts Club and taught in the New Orleans Art School.

During the summers of 1926-1928, Spratling lectured on colonial architecture at the National University of Mexico's Summer School.

The highly charged political and social environment in Mexico after the revolution influenced Spratling's decision in 1931 to reestablish a silver industry in Taxco.

Taxco was a traditional site of silver mines, but had no native silverworking industry.

Spratling began designing works in silver based primarily on pre-Columbian and traditional motifs, and hired local goldsmiths to produce those designs in Taxco.

Spratling was the primary designer for his workshop, Taller de las Delicias, and was insistent on the high quality of the materials and techniques used in production.

Talented maestros shared in the creative dialogue with Spratling, transforming his design drawings into prototypes in silver.

Spratling's use of an aesthetic vocabulary based on pre-Columbian art can be compared to the murals of Diego Rivera, in that both artists were involved in the creation of a new cultural identity for Mexico.

Primarily, Spratling's silver designs drew upon pre-conquest Mesoamerican motifs, with influence from other native and Western cultures.

To many, his work served as an expression of Mexican nationalism, and gave Mexican artisans the freedom to create designs in non-European forms.

Because of his influence on the silver design industry in Mexico, Spratling has been called the "Father of Mexican Silver".

The forms that evolved in silver at Las Delicias were admired by visitors to the workshop, who purchased the objects as talismans of a remote and exotic culture.

In the late thirties, Spratling expanded beyond sales at Las Delicias and into a wholesale business.

He employed over 500 artisans in the workshop to meet the demand in the United States for luxury good during World War II.

Spratling silver was sold through the Montgomery Ward catalog and at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

With the cost of moving the workshop to an ancient silver hacienda, La Florida, Spratling incorporated to provide cash flow for his company.

After 1938, he began using a circular mark with the WS sans-serifs at its center, around which read "Spratling Made in Mexico".

On June 30, 1945, a majority of the shares was sold to North American investor Russell Maguire, whose business practices ultimately took the company into bankruptcy.

Spratling had received widespread fame as a result of his development of what many considered a model handwrought industry.

In 1945, Spratling was asked by two friends, Alaska's Territorial Governor, Ernest Gruening, and the Director of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Rene d'Harnoncourt, to replicate his success in Alaska.

Spratling recommended the establishment of workshop and exhibit centers in various regions of Alaska organized into a Federation of Alaska Native Arts.

Each center's unique production would be born out of the traditions in iconography, materials, and techniques belonging to that specific region.

This mark was accompanied, up until 1945, with an oval in which was imprinted, "Spratling Silver".

In 1948, Alaskan World War II veterans were sent to Taxco for instruction in silversmithing.

Spratling also produced 200 prototypes as future inspiration for the newly trained Alaskans in their workshop centers.

Unfortunately, Congress did not allocate funds and the project was not implemented.

In 1952, Spratling reestablished a small workshop at his ranch in Taxco el Viejo and began production of silver jewelry and decorative objects that clearly were influenced by his Alaskan experience.

In a 1955 article, "25 Years of Mexican Silverware," Spratling expressed his belief that the object in silver should be considered the culmination of a mystical and visionary process.

For Spratling, the necessity of direct human involvement in every phase of a handwrought industry meant there were contributions to be made by every maestro and silversmith.

The designer continuously interacted with and was aware of the capabilities of members of the workshop.

The final statement, the object itself, was a result of an ongoing experiment in creativity.

Spratling's earliest work can be characterized as inspired expressions in silver, resembling the power of the reliefs on the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Xochicalco or the pre-Columbian clay stamps he admired.

The designs incorporate sinuous lines that were deeply carved, with strong light and shadow contrasts.

The inspiration from pre-Columbian models could be direct, as in the repousse Quetzalcoatl brooch, based on the heart bowl in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, or indirect, like the silver pitcher with the eagle handle in carved wood.

Spratling marked his earliest work with a simple interlocking WS.