Images(2)

Salt Cellar

Date1742-1743

Artist/Maker Edward Wood

OriginEngland, London

MediumSilver (Sterling)

DimensionsH: 1 3/8"; L: 3 1/8"; W: 2 9/16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1954-533,1

DescriptionSalt cellar: body in form of elongated octagon with sides canted in cyma curves and resting on conforming, narrow, applied, foot-ring; inset in top is a shallow elliptical well.
Label TextThe most common pattern of salt between 1710 and 1740 is of this low oblong shape with canted corners and profiled sides. Whereas larger forms of related polygonal design, such as casters and various hollowware articles for tea and coffee, were rarely made after 1730, salts of this type continued to be made concurrently with more fashionable tripod salts into the 1740s. A pair of plain tripod salts of 1739/40 also by Edward Wood, a prolific specialist maker of salts, are in the collection (accession 1954-567, 1-2). David Hennell, who completed his apprenticeship under Wood in 1735 and commenced business as a salt maker the following year, although he probably made tripod salts from the start of his career, continued to fashion salts of this earlier pattern as late as 1749.
InscribedOwner's initial (A) engraqved on face of each body.
MarkingsUnder well: EW with tulip above in oval; lion passant; date letter "G" for 1742-1743; leopard's head crowned.
ProvenanceVendor: Garrard & Co. Ltd., London (purchased from Mrs. M. Besant, Forest Row, Sussex, 1953)