Description
Specialties
- Teacher in the Architecture Department at Tulane University.
- Silversmith
- Designer
1925
- Traveled to Mexico to study Spanish Colonial architecture.
- Made his first visit to Taxco and decided to live there.
1929
- Moved to Mexico.
- Invested it in a house in Taxco, near the silver mining region of Mexico.
- Spratling created a jewelry workshop in Taxco.
- Silver was not the usual jewelry material in Mexico and workers had to be trained.
- Created an apprenticeship system, training many who would later be famous in their own right.
- Used native materials such as amethyst, turquoise and rosewood in his designs.
1935
- Moved to a larger shop to accommodate the large number of tourists coming in on the improved roadways.
- Sold furniture, rugs, wood and tin articles along with his silver jewelry.
1944
- Went to Alaska at the invitation of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
- Created 200 designs based on Alaskan motifs.
- Trained Alaskans in Taxco and sent them back to train others.
1946
- Spratling y Artisanos had 422 workers.
- Hundreds of small shops were opened by men trained in Spratling workshops.
1967
- Spratling died.
- Alberto Ulrich purchased the estate and continued to produce jewelry under the name “Sucesores de William Spratling S.A.”
- Spratling was known throughout Mexico as the “Father of Mexican Silver.”