A Rare Mexican Hardwood Campeachy Chair, c. 1942, by William Spratling, Taxco, stamped on reverse of crest, leather upholstery with brass nails. E3500-5000 Provenance: Estate of Ethel Jane Westfeldt Bunting of New Orleans and Charleston, South Carolina. This is one of a pair of campeachy chairs Mrs. Bunting purchased from William Spratling in Taxco in 1942 The mate was lost several years ago in Hurricane Hugo. Mrs. Bunting spent the spring and summer of 1942 in Taxco as the guest of Natalie Scott, an old friend from New Orleans. - Scott was an author and friend of William Spratling, and had also been His landlady in the 1920s in New Orleans at 621 St. Peter Street. Scott and Spratling had published Old Plantation Houses of Louisiana together, and Spratling had illustrated Scott's cookbook Two Hundred Years of New Orleans Cooking. Spratling settled in Taxco in 1929, and had a stream of visitors including John Dos Passos, Hart Crane, Katherine Anne Porter, Edward Weston and Diego Rivera. Natalie Scott arrived in 1930 after travelling on horseback from Brownsville Texas. Her horse reportedly dropped dead in front of the Hotel Taxqueno at the thought of carrying Scott back to Brownsville. By the summer of 1931 Scott had settled in a house across the ravine from Spratling. Spratling and His silver workshop, Taller de Las Delicias, were the catalyst for the renaissance of Mexican silver-making. Spratling signature detail also designed simple furniture, initially for His home, but after it was widely admired, He also produced it for sale. Ref: Peggy Chittim Morrill and Carole A. Berk, Mexican Silver, 20th Century Handwrought Jewelry and Metalwork (1994, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen. Pa.)