Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Silver, Room 69, The Whiteley Galleries

Salt

ca. 1575 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Small triangular salt cellars mounted on three feet were common pieces of tableware in affluent homes in late 16th-century Germany. The cities of southern Germany dominated the goldsmiths’ craft there from the 15th to the early 19th centuries. Engraved designs for silver flowed off their printing presses into workshops across Europe. Their goldsmiths and merchants travelled widely, the former sometimes settling in cities that promised new sources of patronage, the latter selling silver goods as far north as the Baltic Sea and as far east as Russia.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver-gilt, engraved
Brief description
Salt, gilded silver, engraved, Germany (Memmingen), maker's mark unknown, ca. 1575
Physical description
Triangular, with hemispherical bowl. The visible parts all gilt, the top half decorated with scrolls and foliage, supported on 3 mask feet. Engraved lozenge decoration around rim.
Dimensions
  • Height: 2.50cm
  • Length: 9.20cm
Marks and inscriptions
Underside of bowl: town mark, a shield, divided in two, the left hand side containing half an eagle, the right hand side a cross, for Memmingen engraved arms (a merchant's mark?) of rearing horse in an escutcheon, with a horizontal line across the middle, unidentified maker's mark IN, with a 6 pointed star above, unidentified (Rosenberg 3397)
Gallery label
SALT Silver-gilt Town mark of Memmingen (Bavaria). Maker's mark, IN in monogram with a mullet, unidentifed. About 1575. (Webb Collection) 240-1874.(Pre-2000)
Object history
Purchase - J Webb Collection
Production
Memmingen, Bavaria. Maker unidentified.
Summary
Small triangular salt cellars mounted on three feet were common pieces of tableware in affluent homes in late 16th-century Germany. The cities of southern Germany dominated the goldsmiths’ craft there from the 15th to the early 19th centuries. Engraved designs for silver flowed off their printing presses into workshops across Europe. Their goldsmiths and merchants travelled widely, the former sometimes settling in cities that promised new sources of patronage, the latter selling silver goods as far north as the Baltic Sea and as far east as Russia.
Collection
Accession number
240-1874

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Record createdFebruary 9, 2004
Record URL
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