D2512. Blue and White Square Salt Cellar

Delft, circa 1670
Biconical vessel on a square base with four round feet in each corner, continuous decoration with on each side a figure in a various landscape, at the top, a square basin with a cherry motif surrounded by a band of scroll work.

DIMENSIONS
Height: 12 cm. (4.7 in.)

PROVENANCE
German Private Collection, Hessen

NOTE
Salt has been an invaluable commodity for thousands of years, essential for preserving and flavoring food, and even used as a form of currency. Its universal value made it an international medium of exchange. In fact, Roman soldiers were paid with salt, from which the Latin word “salarium” — the origin of the word “salary” — is derived. Salt was also among the earliest goods to be taxed, with records of such taxation in China as early as 2000 BC. Given its significance, it’s no surprise that salt played a central role on Medieval and Renaissance dining tables.

Salt cellars, or simply “salts,” were used to hold this valuable mineral, with the earliest examples dating back to classical Rome. Salt cellars also served as important social indicators. The type of salt a host used at the table reflected their wealth and status — the finer the salt, the more prestigious the household. A guest’s importance could be gauged by their proximity to the salt cellar: the closer they sat, the higher their status. Luxury salt cellars were made of precious metals, while others were crafted from porcelain, earthenware, or pewter. By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, salt’s symbolic importance waned, and the size of salt cellars was reduced accordingly. The square design of this Delft salt indicates that it was produced before this decline in the social importance of table salt, as demonstrated by its
considerable height. Records show that square salts have been made in Delft since at least 1667, though very few examples of this particular model have survived to the present day.

SIMILAR EXAMPLES
A similar salt cellar is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. C.360-1919). A second salt cellar, with slightly different decoration, is in the collection of the Het Princessehof Museum in Leeuwarden (inv. no. NO 05792). A third salt cellar is in the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation in Virginia, USA (inv. no. JS88.30). A fourth example, with a similar cherry motif, but with minor differences in
the chinoiserie decoration, is in the Glasgow Museum (inv. no. E.1974.12.136).