CHAPTER IV

THE SALT CELLAR

Early salt cellars--The standing salt--The hour-glass form--The bell-shaped salt--The seventeenth century--octagonal and circular types--The eighteenth century--trencher salts--Tripod salts--The openwork style with glass liner--The evolution of form in the salt cellar of the later periods.

In the old days when costume determined the gentle from the simple, when demarcations of rank were definitely pronounced, when men wore feathers in their hats and swords at their sides, when retainers and menials sat at the same board with their lord and lady, the customs of the table were not our customs. It was only in Elizabeth’s day, when dinner was served at a long table, that the oaken floor replaced rushes. The diners threw bones to the dogs, and although sweet sounds came from the musician’s gallery, the scene one may recall is one rather of barbaric splendour than of luxurious refinement. To him who loves to quicken the dry bones of collecting into something pulsating with life, the salt cellar provides a delight which is not easily equalled. It was an honoured guest at every feast. It was the social thermometer which marked the exact degree of rank of the sitters. Persons of distinction sat above the salt, and between it and the head of the table. Those who sat below the salt were dependents and inferior guests.

If only these salt cellars reproduced as illustrations could give tongue to the secrets they caught in whisper from the upper end of the table before the withdrawing chamber, prototype of our modern drawing-room, became a necessity! If walls had ears, and if the salt cellars of Tudor England or of the stormy days of the Stuarts could have been fitted with American gramophone wax cylinders, the by-ways of secret history would be less tangled to the historian.

Had this been the case, modern millionaires would have been in competition with one another to secure precious records, as it is only a rich man who can afford to gather together a representative collection of old salt cellars. But for all that, the collector with small means, who is less ambitious, may obtain specimens that are of exceptional interest, and in his quest he may, even in these days when collectors scour Europe, come across an example which may be antique.

As may be imagined, these “salts” are very varied in character. They may be of silver, of earthenware, or of ivory. They may be of simple form with little to distinguish them artistically, or, on the other hand, of such intricate design and rare workmanship as to make them superb examples of the art of the jeweller or silversmith.

Take, for instance, the salt cellar sold at Christie’s in 1902 for £3,000. It was only 7⁵/₈ inches in height. It is silver-gilt, bearing the London hall-mark for 1577, and the maker’s mark, a hooded falcon, probably the work of Thomas Bampton, of the “Falcon.” The receptacle for the salt is of rock crystal, and the base stands upon claw feet, which are of crystal. The cover is square, having a circular dome top, above which stands a delicately modelled figure of a cherub as an apex.

A standing salt of the time of James I, with the London hall-mark for 1613, was sold at Christie’s in 1903 for £1,150. The height of this is 11³/₈ inches, and beyond its special value on account of its age and rarity, its form is not possessed of greater elegance than many a lowly pepper caster whose presence it would scorn on the same board.

From the rare Henri II majolica of the sixteenth century to the humble trencher salt, the range of salt cellars is a comprehensive one. The most sumptuous examples, set in a magnificence of chased design exhibiting the finest craftsmanship of the goldsmith and silversmith, command high prices on account of their rarity, and old salts of exceptional character place their collecting in the hands of the elect whose cabinets are known all over the world. But there are many lesser examples of the silversmith’s work, and it is not yet too late to acquire pieces suggestive of days when at the table “the jest was crowned at the upper end and the lower half made echo.”

The City Companies possess many fine examples, and among the college plate at Oxford and Cambridge there are many unequalled specimens of the high-standing old salts. There is the silver-gilt plain salt presented by Roger Dunster to the Clothworkers’ Company in 1641, and another a drum-shaped salt, silver-gilt, the “Guift of Daniel Waldo, Clothworker, Esquire, an^{o} 1660.” Then there is the circular salt and cover, 22 inches high, of the Goldsmiths’ Company, with the date letter of the year 1601, which was “the guift of Richard Rogers, Comptroller of His Maj^{ties} Mynt” ... “desiring the same may bee used at their solemne meetings and to bee remembered as a good benefactor, anno d^{ni} 1632.” This salt has a body of glass, round which are two silver-gilt collars in chased and repoussé work. The Goldsmiths’ Company have other salts, notably one the “Gift of Thomas Seymour” in 1693. The Haberdashers’ Company have a circular salt the gift of Sir Hugh Hammersley in 1636. The Innholders’ Company have two circular salts the gift of John Wetterworth in 1626, and a circular salt, silver-gilt, 16 inches high, with a dome raised on four scrolls, terminated by an obelisk, the gift of Anne, widow of John Sweete, 1635. The Ironmongers’ Company have two fine silver salts, parcel gilt, shaped like hour-glasses, having six-foiled sides, in three of which is foliage engraved. The date of one is 1518 and of the other 1522. The Skinners’ Company have a silver-gilt octagonal salt 9 inches high, the gift of Ben Albin, a member, in 1676. The Mercers’ Company salts we are enabled to illustrate by courteous permission. The Vintners’ Company have a fine silver-gilt salt, the gift of John Powel, Master of the Company, in 1702. It is like a square casket in form, with panels richly decorated in bold relief with figures, and the cover surmounted by an urn upon which stands a female figure.

Some rare examples are in the possession of corporate bodies. There is the silver-gilt salt and cover, 15¹/₄ inches high, belonging to the Corporation of Norwich. This is, as the inscription indicates, “The Gyfte of Petar Reade Esqviar.” The plate marks are a roman capital