Salt cellar, silver, parcel-gilt, London, 1730-31, mark of Paul Crespin.

Salt, one of a set of four, the moulded foot is cast and chased. Circular salt with applied cast band of quatrefoil rosettes on the stem and a leafy foliate foot with an ogee moulding; the cast bowl embellished with a calyx of stiff leaves.

Bequeathed by Sir Edgar Sebright, Bt.

Bequest - Sir Edgar Sebright, Bart
Acquisition RF: 18 / 676

Paul Crespin was born in London, the son of Daniel Crespin of the parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields, Westminster. In June 1713, at the surprisingly late age of 19, Crespin was apprenticed to Jean Pons, silversmith, of the same parish. Pons was attached to the Huguenot church in Castle Street, where his presence is recorded in 1701. Crespin’s fellow apprentices included Henry, son of Daniel Paillon, gunsmith, who joined the workshop in 1716. Between July 1720 and December 1721 Crespin entered his first two marks at Goldsmiths’ Hall and was described as free of the Longbowstringmakers’ Company.

Large numbers of salt cellars were required at the eighteenth century dinner table as each diner had his own salt which was positioned to the side of his place at the table.

This is the classic early eighteenth century design for salt cellars supplied by Huguenot goldsmiths. It is possible that there was a single specialist maker of such salts but many of the surviving examples are marked by Anne Tanqueray, her brother David Willaume, Paul de Lamerie, George Wickes, Simon le Sage and Edward Wakelin. They range in date from the mid-1720s to the mid-1760s.

Large numbers of salt cellars were required at the eighteenth century dinner table as each diner had his own salt which was positioned to the side of his place at the table.

M.14-1918