Object Type
This piece is for serving powdered salt at a grand dinner. From the medieval period until the 17th century, containers for serving salt at table were often highly decorative. They were placed in front of the master of the house and symbolised his status. By the 18th century, salts had lost this symbolic role: they were usually small and plain, and were evenly distributed around the table, usually one to two diners. (Pepper was served from casters, as was sugar and dry mustard.) This salt is an unusually decorative one for its date. Crayfish salts were sold in pairs. The collector Horace Walpole owned a plain white pair.

Design & Designing
Nicholas Sprimont (1716-1771) made crayfish salts in silver before he founded the Chelsea porcelain factory. He made some in 1742-1743 for a marine-themed table setting commissioned by Frederick, Prince of Wales. Sprimont repeated the design at the Chelsea factory around 1745 and continued to make them in the 1750s: he included six pairs in a London auction of Chelsea porcelain held in 1756. He probably took the motif of a crayfish mounting a shell from a print by the great French Rococo silversmith and designer Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (see museum no. 29564:121). The crayfish was cast from a real crustacean.