salt cellar thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

salt cellar

Salt
1728-1729 (made)
Artist/Maker
Louis Cuny (maker)
Place of origin
London (made)

The inconvenience of a central standing salt encouraged the development in the early 17th century of a much smaller receptacle which was placed near the individual plate. This salt cellar is one of a set of four cellars which would have been distributed along the dining table.


Object details

Categories
Containers
Metalwork
Silver
Tableware & Cutlery
Object type
Salt
Titlesalt cellar (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Silver parcel-gilt interior
Silver
Gold
Raising
Chasing
Amalgam Gilding
Engraving (Incising)
Brief description
Salt cellar (one of set of four), silver and gilded silver, English (London), 1728-29, mark of Louis Cuny (double-struck).
Physical description
One of a set of four salt cellars, silver, the interior gilded, the feet cast and chased, the bowls decorated with applied leaves. The bowl, circular with moulded necking, and decorated with eight vertical leaves, the foot with an ogee moulding enriched with foliage. Engraved with the crest of Sebright.
Dimensions
  • Foot to rim height: 5.3cm
  • Across the rim of the bowl diameter: 9cm
  • Across foot diameter: 7.8cm
  • Weight: 218g
  • Weight: 6.99troy
Marks and inscriptions
  • Marked on the underside of the bowl, around the centre: Leopard's head crowned, for the London assay office; 'N' in a shield, for the assay year 1728-29; the lion passant, for sterling standard silver; maker's mark of Louis Cuny, struck twice.
  • Engraved on the side with the crest of Sebright, a heraldic tiger sejant argent, maned and crowned or.
Credit line
Bequeathed by Sir Edgar Sebright, Bt.
Object history
Bequest - Sir Edgar Sebright, Bart

Acquisition RF: 18 / 676
Subjects depicted
Moulding
Leaves
Foliage
Crest
Summary
The inconvenience of a central standing salt encouraged the development in the early 17th century of a much smaller receptacle which was placed near the individual plate. This salt cellar is one of a set of four cellars which would have been distributed along the dining table.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Watts, W. W., Catalogue of English Silversmiths' Work Civil and Domestic (with Scottish and Irish). London: HMSO, 1920.
  • Grimwade, Arthur G.. London Goldsmiths 1697-1837. Their Marks and Lives. 1st edn. London: Faber and Faber, 1976.
Collection
Metalwork Collection
Accession number
M.13A-1918

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Record createdSeptember 10, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O103750/salt-cellar-salt-louis-cuny/
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