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 goods 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. On June 30, 1945, a majority of the shares were 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. 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. After 1938, he began using a circular mark with the WS sans-serifs at its center, around which read "Spratling Made in Mexico". This mark was accompanied, up until 1945, with an oval in which was imprinted, "Spratling Silver". The Alaska pieces and work from c. 1950 were marked with a simple script "WS". Spratling also collaborated briefly (1949–51) with the Mexico City silver company Conquistador, and these pieces were marked with a circle in which was inscribed "Spratling de [or of] Mexico" and across, "Sterling". The eagle or assay mark for the Conquistador pieces contained the number 13, and for Spratling, the numbers 1 or 30.
Spratling's later work is more linear and refined. The croissant necklace has a great deal of movement, but now based on abstract form. Spratling's maker's mark in this period once again took the form of a circle, this time with the script "WS" surrounded by the words, "William Spratling Taxco Mexico". In the 1960s, Spratling began producing jewelry in gold with pre-Columbian stones. Each piece was unique and marked with a simple "WS" beneath "18K".
While teaching at Tulane, Spratling shared a house with writer William Faulkner.
When lecturing at the National University of Mexico's Summer School in 1926-1928, Spratling quickly integrated himself into the Mexican art scene and became a friend and a strong proponent of the work of muralist Diego Rivera, for whom he organized an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Using money received from commissions he organized for Rivera, Spratling bought a home in Taxco, Mexico in 1928, where he began work on a book, Little Mexico, about this small mountain town.
Spratling was gay, but most accounts of his life mention this only indirectly if at all.
Spratling amassed a large collection of pre-Columbian figurines from Remojadas, Veracruz, which he donated, in large part, to the museum of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1959. Photographed by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, several of these works were published in More Human Than Divine. Spratling also donated hundreds of pre-Columbian objects to a museum in Taxco that today bears his name.
Spratling was killed in an automobile accident outside of Taxco on August 7, 1967, at the age of 66. Sabina Leof (aka Tibby Leof, wife of noted Pre-Columbian art collector and preeminent dentist Dr Milton Arno Leof) commented on her friendship with Spratling: "He had no political views, was not dedicated to anything special. He believed in humanity. He was an ardent American, but had a great love for the Mexican people."