Standing salt

Salt was a precious and highly prized commodity during the Tudor period, and standing salts were important in royal and aristocratic households. Not only does this vessel hold this valuable condiment, but it was also an important indicator of status at the dining table – the salt was always placed close to the host, with the guests of the highest status seated alongside the host. In aristocratic homes salts were given as gifts and handed down through generations. Throughout history, precious metals as decorative objects have often been reworked or melted and remade, and sadly this is the fate which has befallen many salts. This extraordinary example is thought to be one of only eight square-shaped Elizabethan standing salts that survive.

Salt was a precious and highly prized commodity during the Tudor period, and standing salts were important in royal and aristocratic households. Not only does this vessel hold this valuable condiment, but it was also an important indicator of status at the dining table – the salt was always placed close to the host, with the guests of the highest status seated alongside the host. In aristocratic homes salts were given as gifts and handed down through generations. Throughout history, precious metals as decorative objects have often been reworked or melted and remade, and sadly this is the fate which has befallen many salts. This extraordinary example is thought to be one of only eight square-shaped Elizabethan standing salts that survive.

WALL LABEL: Standing salt, 1583–84

In the Tudor and Elizabethan periods, salt was a highly prized commodity and the salt cellar, or standing salt, would be placed next to the most important person at the dining table. This extraordinary silver-gilt standing salt is one of only eight of this style (rectangular) surviving today and, before joining AGSA’s collection in 1964, had led an interesting life.

In the collection of the well-known banking family the Rothschilds for several generations, the salt was sold by the family in 1940. From 1933 the Rothschilds had been involved in supporting Jewish people to escape the Nazis, establishing the Central British Fund. By 1940, however, their organisation was financially struggling, resulting in the sale of this object and many others from the Rothschild family collection. Only two years later, the standing salt was nearly lost during the wartime bombing but luckily survived and was eventually purchased by the Penfold-Hyland family, who donated it to AGSA in 1964.

Tansy Curtin, Curator of International Art Pre-1980