Salt
Silver
Object details
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | |
| Brief description | Silver |
| Gallery label | 6. Griffin Salt
Silver-gilt.
South German, the body perhaps late 17th century, the wings and salt dish marked with a fake town mark for Augsburg, probably 19th century.
This unusual object appears to be a marriage of silver of different dates. The wings and salt dish, which have Rococo style swirling decoration, look much later than the griffin's body. The body may have been designed originally to hold a shield with an engraved or enamelled coat of arms.
George Mitchell Bequest.
288-1878(1990-1995) |
| Credit line | George Mitchell Bequest |
| Object history | This silver griffin clutching a shell was once owned by the author, politician and patron of the arts, Horace Walpole (1717-1797). It was bequeathed to the Museum in 1872 by George Mitchell (who also gave the South Kensington Museum an important group of gold boxes). In 1972 it could still be described as a late-seventeenth-century salt-cellar (Lightbown: 1972, p. 201), but more recent examination suggests it is a marriage of seventeenth- and nineteenth-century silver to create a historicising piece intended to appeal to collectors. |
| Bibliographic reference | Lightbown, R. W. A Victorian's Taste in Silver. Apollo. March 1972, vol. 95, no. 121 (new series). pp. 201-205. [Special Issue: The Jones Collection - Victoria and Albert Museum.] |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 288-1878 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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