Selection of 19th century glass salt cellars from auction catalog.
(Skinner Inc. auction photo)
The Salt Cellar's
Honored Place at the Table
By: Robert Reed
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As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, May, 2005
Time was when the salt cellar or salt dish honored the table on which it sat, and also honored the person who sat before it.
Centuries ago salt was considered a very valued item. It was costly, but considered a choice seasoning for meals. Typically the salt sat in a single dish at the head of the table. The honor of sitting at the at the head of the table above the salt was then given to the most distinguished person or persons at the dining table.
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Much later Victorians would provide individual salt cellars in the quest for elegant dining. Some the finest examples may be made of silver, but most were fashioned from a variety of glass. Today some salt cellars are prized by collectors and can even be found offered at major auction houses.
Historical accounts show that during the Middle Ages and later during the Renaissance period the salt cellar occupied a place of honor on the dining table. The forms varied but one standard during the late 1400s and early 1500s was the hour-glass form salt dish. It was said to be a fairly stable design which was not prone to being knocked over and bringing the resulting “spilling the salt” bad luck.
One of the most famous salt dishes was the Fuller Salt which was said to have been transported from England to American by Mayflower passenger Edward Fuller. The 1600s salt dish had scroll knobs on its top for sitting the fruit dish once the meat course was removed. The tin-glazed earthenware Fuller Salt is now housed in the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
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During the latter 1600s some salts were rather bell-shaped dishes which were sometimes centrally located. Still other large salts of that decade were quite circular with a flaring base to give them further stability. In 1644 a Colonial estate document listed “a very faire salt with 3 full knops (knob-like ornamentation) on the top of it.” It’s written description would seem to compare it in some ways to the Fuller Salt.
Moreover there were indications during that decade of a trend toward some salts being produced in pairs, and even in smaller individual settings. Small open salts, sometimes called trencher salts, began to appear in England and the Colonies.
Records in Colonial America show a pair of decorated bowl-shaped salts were made for Helena Willet in 1665. Helena was the daughter of Thomas Willet the first English mayor of New York City.
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By the early 1700s open trencher salts were seen more and more frequently on fashionable tables, elsewhere the taller and previously popular footed salts are still present. At times both smaller individual salts and the larger salt were used at the same time, even though the condiment remained relatively costly. Stylish examples of both pewter and silver were available to the upscale household.
During much of the 18th century fairly elaborate salts were available for the more distinguished table. Some bore cabriole legs in the manner of certain furniture of that Colonial era. Others could be fancy ovals or fashioned after decorative urns. Toward the final quarter of that century glass salts began to capture the attention of those who sought to set a striking table for dining. In Pennsylvania glassmaker Henry William Stiegel brought in European craftsmen to create spectacular glassware including distinguished salt cellars.
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Entering the 19th century in America, glass was king for salt containers. Heavy glass salts were in vogue in many places, some offered swelling contours in the image of sugar bowls and teapots they sat beside. While some glass salts were colorless, others in the Stiegel style were sapphire-blue, violet, opaque blue, opaque white, green, black olive or other hues.
By the 1830s and 1840s the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company and the New England Glass Company were producing a good many fancy salt dishes. While the majority of them tended to be of clear glass, the designs themselves were wide ranging. Some salts had scrolled leaves, others had elaborate feet, and some even appeared as baskets of flowers. A few salts were still more creative with images of a chariot race, paddleboat steamer, the American eagle, or a commemorative to George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette.
During the second half of the 19th century the larger salts were referred to as master salts. The smaller individual salts were sometimes called dips, cellars, trenchers, or salt dishes. Patterns varied from the ribbed saw tooth design to the cut-cornered square type.
By the 1870s manufacturers to able to include a additive in their salt product which allowed it to shift more freely and not clump as it had done before. Non-caking salt could now be placed in shakers along with matching pepper shakers. Even with the advent of salt and pepper shakers, the salt cellar remained a staple on the Victorian table. Sometimes hosts insisted on individual salts even when the salt and pepper shakers were added to the table.
Very fine crystal salts were still very much in vogue during the 1890s in the finer homes. Many of the excellent cut glass models bore the initials or names of distinguished makers including T. B. Clark and Company, J.D. Bergen, and Pinkins and Brooks. The signature or maker’s mark was typically found on the salt’s bottom surface or in the center of the upper surface.
The renowned Pairpoint Manufacturing Company offered silver plated and gold lined “Table Salt” containers to the well-to-do of the 1890s. Packaged in plush lined boxes, the salts frequently came with matching gold or silver plate spoons for individual servings. Most of the precious metals salts were relatively plain in design, but some of Pairpoint’s issues were quite detailed including one set which was done in the figural image of cracked eggs. Leading retailers of that era also sold both silver and gold lined salts as well as better glass models.
Even into the early 20th century when salt and pepper shakers became generally accepted for the dining course, the tradition of salt cellar remained in the most refined and affluent homes.
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