This salt cellar is the most explicit symbolist design that Ashbee produced for the Guild of Handicraft. The winged figure supporting a sphere is not unlike the Renaissance motif of Atlas upholding the world. It represents the winged spirit of imagination and idealism, the embodiment of Ashbee's ambitions.

Ashbee and his fellow guildsmen sought to promote a natural and ethical approach towards craftsmanship. Besides adopting the aesthetic principles of the Arts and Crafts movement in which the transformational potential of creativity was re-integrated into daily life through art, their social orientation was towards equality and co-operation beyond the workshop. This was manifest, for instance, in profit sharing and communal activities such as sport and music making.

Ashbee and his Guild reacted against mechanical, highly finished silver products manufacture on production lines in large scale factories. It attempted to re-assert the role of the individual craftsmen who could see the creation of an item through from start to finish. Hammer marks are clearly visible on the surface of this bowl; a deliberate finish to emphasise that it was hand made.