Salières & Salt Cellars in France, the story in words and pictures. A slide show by Anna Soo-Hoo for HPFI

1. Salières/Saltcellars
As part of the Henri Peyre French Institute’s seminar Food, Power, Exchange,
and Identity: Food and Foodstuffs in the French and Francophone Worlds,
this slide show invites the viewer to consider how various types of beautifully
made saltcellars from France reflect the historical significance of salt.
Prepared by Anna Soo-Hoo
Fall 2015

2. Gothic
In medieval France (c. 10th century - 15th century), the dinner host as
well as the more important guests were seated nearest the saltcellar. Not only
was salt a reminder of one’s covenant with God (for example, see Numbers
18:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5), salt also became even more expensive when the
gabelle, a tax on salt, was created in the 14th century. Finely decorated
saltcellars made of gold were in households of the nobility. In this slide show,
the second saltcellar featured has details such as twelve turrets and thirteen of
its originally seventeen gargoyles, architectural elaborations chosen even for a
luxury item of such small size.

3. Saltcellar
mid-13th century
Paris, France
Medium: gold, rock crystal,
emeralds, pearls, spinel or balas
rubies
Height: 5 ½ in. (14 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/coll
ection/the-collection-
online/search/469879

4. Salt-cellar
15th century
France
Agate, gold, opaque enamels on
gold ronde-bosse, pearls
Height: 0.10 m (3.94 inches)
Musée du Louvre
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartel
en/visite?srv=car_not_frame&
idNotice=746&langue=en

5. The 16th Century
Saltcellars in the shape of ships have been recorded in inventories
since the 13th century, but an extraordinary example that has details such as
tiny figures of Tristan and Iseult playing chess on deck while sailors climb the
rigging, with the entire ship being supported by a mermaid, brings us to 16th
century Paris where the famous Burghley Nef was made. The mermaid motif
appears on yet another saltcellar worth noting: a double-tailed mermaid
becomes the focus of a saltcellar made after the style of Bernard Palissy (1509-
1590). This might bring to mind the character of Mélusine, who is sometimes
depicted as a double-tailed mermaid, from Le Roman de Mélusine by Jean
d'Arras (14th century).
France in the 16th century was a time when many artists and writers
had a surging interest in works from Greco-Roman antiquity. It is thus not
surprising that some saltcellars bring Hercules as well as Dido and Aeneas to
the dinner table.

6. The Burghley Nef
1527-1528
Paris, France
Artist: Unknown
Materials and Techniques:
Nautilus shell with parcel-gilt
silver mounts, raised, chased,
engraved and cast, and pearls.
Height: 34.8 cm (13.7 inches)
The Victoria and Albert
Museum, London
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/it
em/O73113/the-burghley-nef-
salt-cellar-unknown/#

7. Pair of Saltcellars
ca. 1520–40
France (perhaps at
Saint-Porchaire)
The Morgan Library
and Museum
http://www.themorga
n.org/collection/painti
ngs-and-art-
objects/object/158228
The above saltcellar is decorated with
salamanders in flames, the emblem of the
French king François I (1494–1547), and
has a height of 5 ½ inches (140 mm.)
This saltcellar with interlaced crescents,
the insignia of Henri II's mistress Diane
de Poitiers (1499–1566), has a height of
5 inches (127 mm.)

8. Salt-cellar bearing the emblems of Henri II
Mid-16th century
France, Saint-Porchaire workshop
Kaolinic clay with lead glaze, embossed decoration
Height: 6.20 cm (2.44 inches)
Musée du Louvre
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_n
ot_frame&idNotice=5303&langue=en

9. Salt-Cellar with a Mermaid,
Shells, and Dolphins
circa 1560-1600
France
after Bernard Palissy (1509-1590)
Height: 7 3/16 inches (18.26 cm)
The Los Angeles County Museum
of Art
http://collections.lacma.org/nod
e/243569

10. Salt Cellar with Sphinxes
circa 1560-1600
France
after Bernard Palissy (1509-1590)
Height: 3 ¾ inches (9.53 cm)
The Los Angeles County Museum
of Art
http://collections.lacma.org/nod
e/243680

11. Salt cellar: the Triumph of
Venus; Aeneas received by Dido
Mid-16th century
Limoges (France)
Attributed to Pierre REYMOND
(1513-1584)
Height: 7.9 cm (3.11 inches)
Musée du Louvre
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/vis
ite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=15
473&langue=en

12. Salt-cellar: The Labours of Hercules
Mid-16th century
Limoges (France)
Pierre REYMOND (1513-1584)
Painted enamel on copper
Height: 8.2 cm (3.23 inches)
Musée du Louvre
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?s
rv=car_not_frame&idNotice=15417&lang
ue=en

13. Salt-cellar decorated with
scenes from the life of Moses
Mid-16th century
Limoges (France)
Painted enamel on copper
Height: 7.8 cm (3.07 inches)
Musée du Louvre
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/vis
ite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=53
52&langue=en

14. Salière
c. 1600
François Briot (c. 1545- c. 1620)
Etain (pewter)
Height: 0.11 m (4.33 inches)
Dijon, musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais /
Stéphane Maréchalle
http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive
/10-529795-
2C6NU0YRARAR.html

15. From the 17th Century Onwards
Just a few highlights can reveal to what heights artists continued to
reach with regards to creating saltcellars during periods when salt remained a
precious commodity. How to be an ideal king is shown on a 17th century
saltcellar depicting Henri IV’s son and successor Louis XIII with the Virtues.
The aristocracy also appreciated naturalistic-looking saltcellars, such as the set
of two saltcellars that was part of the famed Penthièvre-Orléans service. Each
is a covered saltcellar: the crab, turtle, and scallop that are the receptacles for
salt have shells that are also hinged lids. The third image in our short series
suggests that for the manager of a plantation in the former French colony of
Saint-Domingue, impressive saltcellars were desired. Lastly, rather than look
at saltcellar models from the 19th and 20th centuries, since salt became less
expensive after the gabelle was abolished in 1790 (then reinstated and
abolished again a few more times until its final end in 1945), it would be
worthwhile to take note of a finely made “boîte à sel,” a kitchen utensil that was
used for storing salt.

16. Salt-cellar: Louis XIII and
the Virtues
c. 1615
Limoges (France)
Painted enamel on copper
Height: 9.3 cm (3.66 inches)
Musée du Louvre
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartele
n/visite?srv=car_not_frame&id
Notice=16604&langue=en

17. One of a set of
two salt-cellars
1734-36
Paris
Thomas GERMAIN
(1673 – 1748)
Silver
Musée du Louvre
http://www.louvre.f
r/en/oeuvre-
notices/two-
saltcellars

18. Pair of salt-cellars
1778-79, Paris
Marc-Étienne JANETY (1739-1820)
Silver, blue crystal
Arms of the Bayon de Libertat family (Saint-Domingue)
Musée du Louvre
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=4241&langue=en

19. Boîte à sel en bois
1816
Ustensile de cuisine
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b102065
848.r=Boite+%C3%A0+sel+en+bois+1816+T
R.langEN

20. Imagining
Nautical motifs can be reworked in various ways when designing
saltcellars, but some artists made other topics bloom in their designs. For
example, if the goddess Cybele breast-feeding a baby is not enough of a feature,
one might include a scene of a couple expressing their ardor for each other. A
design for such an intricate saltcellar has been attributed to artists associated
with the Fontainebleau school, a school that was named for artists who helped
to decorate François I’s Château de Fontainebleau.

21. Design for two saltcellars
1540-1560
Paris, France
Engraving print on paper
Artists/Makers:
Pierre Milan (attributed to,
engraver)
René Boyvin, born 1520
(attributed to, engraver)
Antonio Fantuzzi, (attributed to,
engraver)
Léonard Thiry (after, artist)
Rosso Fiorentino, born 1494 -
died 1540 (after, artist)
The Victoria and Albert Museum,
London
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item
/O795443/print-milan/

22. Dessein d'une salière poivrière pour le Roy approuvé par Sa Majesté et par S.A.S. M. le Duc [d'Antin]
1727
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6937018j.r=sali%C3%A8re.langEN

23. Pot à Sucre (Sugar Bowl) and Salière à deux
(Double Salt Cellar), plate 53, in Elements
d'Orfèvrerie (Elements of Goldsmithing),
Second Part
1748
France
Print
Designer: Pierre Germain (1716–83)
Etcher: Jean Jacques Pasquier (died 1785)
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18248
787/

24. Différents Desseins de Salières
[Various Designs for Salt Dishes],
pl. 63 in Œuvre de Juste-Aurèle
Meissonnier
1748
Paris, France
Print
Designer: Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier
(1695–1750)
Etcher: Gabriel Huquier (1695–1772)
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects
/18222503/

25. Two Mysteries
#1. Greco-Roman themed saltcellars made of copper and painted enamel can
date from 16th and 17th century France, but a slightly tilting saltcellar from
Limoges made of similar material and featuring Neptune and Amphitrite might
be from a different time period.
#2. Pressed glass, developed in the 19th century in the United States and then
throughout Europe, was used to make drinking vessels, vases, and many other
objects, of which there were saltcellars, of course. In some cases, whether the
objects were created by an artisan in the United States or by an artisan in
France remains difficult to say with certainty.

26. Salt-cellar: Neptune and Amphitrite
Date?
Limoges (France)
Painted enamel on copper
Height: 7.5 cm (2.95 inches)
Former Durand collection, acquired in 1825
Musée du Louvre
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv
=car_not_frame&idNotice=15470&langue
=en

27. Salt
1800–1900
United States or France
Lacy pressed amber glass
Height: 2 3/16 in. (5.6 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum
of Art
http://www.metmuseum.o
rg/collection/the-
collection-
online/search/7046

28. Sources
Mollat, Michel. Le rôle du sel dans l'histoire : travaux préparés sous la
direction de Michel Mollat. Paris: Presses universitaires de
France, 1968.
Pressed Glass, 1825-1925. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass, 1983.
Images from:
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Morgan Library and Museum
Musée du Louvre
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London