The Stoke Prior Trencher Salt
Salt
1639-1640 (hallmarked)
1639-1640 (hallmarked)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
The inconvenience of a central standing salt encouraged the development in the mid-16th century of sets of small plain trencher salts without covers for daily use. They were made in plain, lightweight silver such as this one but also in pewter or ceramic. Trencher salts took their name from the large piece of coarse bread or the wooden platter from which diners ate.
Design & Designing
Salt was highly valued as preservative and flavouring and consequently salts were among the most important pieces of metalwork in a Tudor or Stuart household. Beautiful examples made of precious metals and gems were used to show wealth and status. These small salts represent the everyday, unadorned aspect of an object with great symbolic importance.
This salt and several other pieces of domestic silver were found in 1891 by a boy chasing rabbits at Stoke Prior, near Leominster. It is a particularly interesting group as this sort of relatively simple household silver rarely survives.
The inconvenience of a central standing salt encouraged the development in the mid-16th century of sets of small plain trencher salts without covers for daily use. They were made in plain, lightweight silver such as this one but also in pewter or ceramic. Trencher salts took their name from the large piece of coarse bread or the wooden platter from which diners ate.
Design & Designing
Salt was highly valued as preservative and flavouring and consequently salts were among the most important pieces of metalwork in a Tudor or Stuart household. Beautiful examples made of precious metals and gems were used to show wealth and status. These small salts represent the everyday, unadorned aspect of an object with great symbolic importance.
This salt and several other pieces of domestic silver were found in 1891 by a boy chasing rabbits at Stoke Prior, near Leominster. It is a particularly interesting group as this sort of relatively simple household silver rarely survives.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Stoke Prior Trencher Salt (popular title) |
| Materials and techniques | Silver, engraved |
| Brief description | Silver trencher salt, English, early 17th century |
| Physical description | A simple spool supports the well. The only other decoration is an incised concentric circle around the horizontal rim and another around the upper and lower edges of the spool. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Gallery label | British Galleries:
This small salt cellar, known as a trencher salt, is typical of the plain, lightweight silver made for daily use. Larger, more elaborate silver was kept for special occasions. Few such salts survive from this time. This one was possibly buried for safekeeping during the Civil War and was discovered in 1891 by a boy out rabbiting in Herefordshire.(27/03/2003) |
| Object history | Found with 283, 284, 286, 287, 288, 289-1893 by a boy rabbiting at Stoke Prior near Leominster in 1891. |
| Historical context | This salt and the cups found with it are typical of the light-weight and plain silver in daily use in many English homes. Larger and more elaborate pieces, kept for special occasions or associated with weddings, were not normally used daily. |
| Summary | Object Type The inconvenience of a central standing salt encouraged the development in the mid-16th century of sets of small plain trencher salts without covers for daily use. They were made in plain, lightweight silver such as this one but also in pewter or ceramic. Trencher salts took their name from the large piece of coarse bread or the wooden platter from which diners ate. Design & Designing Salt was highly valued as preservative and flavouring and consequently salts were among the most important pieces of metalwork in a Tudor or Stuart household. Beautiful examples made of precious metals and gems were used to show wealth and status. These small salts represent the everyday, unadorned aspect of an object with great symbolic importance. This salt and several other pieces of domestic silver were found in 1891 by a boy chasing rabbits at Stoke Prior, near Leominster. It is a particularly interesting group as this sort of relatively simple household silver rarely survives. |
| Associated objects |
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| Bibliographic reference | Englesko Srebro [English silver from the Victoria and Albert Museum], Belgrade : Muzej Primenjene Umetnosti, 1980 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 285-1893 |
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| Record created | June 1, 1998 |
| Record URL |
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