A Brief History of by Frances Johnson. With price guide.

Two very rare Monteith & Bonnet Five pewter viking ships marked , honeycomb moulded with ‘Norge’ & ‘Handstopt IPB pewter Four Lustreware salts. double agee bowl. c.1790. £100- tinn’. £5-£10. 1. Carltonware salt 1930s. £30- £150. A Bristol Blue, square Pair of 5” milk glass master salts £35. 2. Pair of modern salts based, date unknown. £30-£50. from Sowerby. Rd. No. 20086, signed T Crider. £60-£75 pair. 3. 1876. £70-£75. Carnival glass marked ‘B’ for Boyd. £10-£15.

Victorian handblown salt with yellow & grey stripes on glass, punt mark to base. £20-£30.

Venetian salt, Vetro a retorti 1. Pair of Fostoria ‘fairfax’ pat- (glass with twists) now called tern pedestal salts, c1930. £25- Zanfirico. Blue twists with gold £35 pair. 2. Pair of US glass Three heavy cut salts. 1. ‘dia- and prunts. c1870. £75-£100. salts, blown clear glass on green mond and star’ cutting, prob. pedestals, Webb’s Crystal Glass Bohemian. £20 - £25. 2. Ornate Co. 1935. £45-£50 pair. brilliant cut Czech salt with Five bridge salts. Three from set strawberry & diamond/fan cut- no. 200 by Westmoreland, c1915. ting. £20 - £25. 3. George IV Top row by unknown maker. 1825/37 cut crystal with dia- £8-£10 each. mond/fan motif. £20 - £25. 1. Pair of porcelain, three footed lobster salts with gold rims, spoons to match, Villeroy & Bock, German early 1800s. £45-£50 the Five Victorian cranberry salts. pair. 2. Porcelain bowl with a sil- Top with white threading, two ver rim marked W.M.F., c.1900. with glass tooled feet, all Mauve and opaline salts with £20-£25. 3. Pair of lobster-claw 68mm.wide. c.1890. £25-£40. Peloton decoration, rigarée and Pair of French art deco salts, sil- salts by Royal Beyreuth, unsigned Below two heart shaped salts, berry pontil in silver plate holder ver holders with clear glass 1910. £50-£55 the pair. Stourbridge c.1900. £45-£55. on eagle claw feet. £150 pair. inserts. £25-£30. In 1991 I was at a flea market in Florida when I spotted a small glass Africa to Asia Minor. From , along the , salt travelled chicken sitting on a blue glass nest which turned out to be a covered salt throughout the Roman Empire and the production of salt was carefully dish, albeit a reproduction. I then found other designs in open salt dish- controlled, with Rome keeping the prices at a fair rate. The officers in es, Fascinated by their variety, I became hooked on collecting them. charge of the distribution were called ‘Salarium’. Each legionary was I have found salt dishes in many countries: Australia, Canada, , issued a special ration called ‘Salarium argentum’ from which comes , Iran, Czechoslovakia, , , Malaysia, Ireland, our present day term salary. Thailand and the USA. I now own a collection of over twelve hundred, In 117 BC, the Chinese government set up agencies to procure salt from ranging in value from 50p to several hundred pounds each. I have the sea and from up to 600m underground, brought to the surface by a research them as thoroughly as possible and at the request of my son, system of gears and pulleys, then dried in pans. They considered salt have decided to compile a book of photographs of the salts along with second only in value to gold. a description of each one. In Semitic countries, salt represents welcome, friendship and faith. The Mammals need salt and early man found his in eating raw meat, but as Arab phrase ‘there is salt between us’ means that participants have sat eating habits changed to include cereals and vegetables, meat was down to eat together in which any covenant or pact between them has boiled and the natural salts were lost so that salt had to be added. Sea been sealed in faithfulness. salt was easy to find for shore living people, but those inland had to Spilt salt represents a broken bond. Throwing a pinch of salt over one’s import it if there were no outcroppings or deposits. Some people left shoulder means that the devil will be blinded since he always secured it from the ashes of saline plants or, as in Germany and Spain, approaches on the left side. In Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’ the spilt salt by pouring water over a fire of saline wood and collecting the ashes. cellar in front of Judas is a classic sign of broken friendship. Wars were fought over saline streams in what is now Germany. In the the only way to preserve meat and dairy products The oldest caravan routes were those established principally for was with salt. Salt was consumed in large amounts by tanners, curries salt. Herodotus’s account of caravan routes visiting the salt oases of the (they dressed and coloured leather), tawers (they dyed skins) and oil desert makes it plain that it was mainly a salt road. The vast salt mines merchants. The common person only ate meat on special occasions; the of Northern India were worked before the time of Alexander and were pig was slaughtered at Christmas, and sausages (from the Latin salsicius the centre of a wide trade. or seasoned with salt) would be prepared and kept until the fasting peri- In Roman times there were sources on the shores of the Black Sea, the od of Lent was over. Therefore fish was the staple diet, consisting Mediterranean and the Atlantic and deposits in a vein running from mainly of dried and salted herring.

ANTIQUES INFO - May/June 05 After the fall of the Roman Empire, monasteries and church leaders In Victorian times, salt was kept on the top of the oven in square, hinged took over the production and distribution of salt. The Benedictines leather boxes which kept supple and resembled little houses. This is boiled sea water to remove the salt and they improved the techniques of why back-to-back houses are sometimes called salt boxes. mining and storing salt. In India, the manufacture of salt by the natives was prohibited because In 1340, Philippe IV of France created a royal monopoly on salt called the British government derived a large revenue from the taxes on the the ‘’. The tax differed greatly between districts and was obliga- salt made under government license. Mahatma Gandhi with his follow- tory but was later abolished following the revolution. ers went on a peaceful strike against this regulation. Cakes of salt have In England between 1400 and 1600, the Lord of the feast had the been used as money in , Abyssinia and other parts of Africa. Standing salt placed in front of him, next in rank had the Master salt in In Russia, notable visitors were presented not with the key to the city, front of them and the lowest in rank, the Steeple salt. but with a salt dish usually made with gilt silver. In the seventeenth century when the entire household dined in the great Before table salt was successfully treated or mixed with moisture hall, tables were provided in five grades. Each table had its Master salt absorbing agents in the early 1900’s, it tended to lump and harden inside according to its grade except for the last which had plain dishes called salt shakers. A few early salt shakers had ‘agitators’ attached to the lids Trencher salts. Trencher salts were also provided on the other tables so or lying loose inside to disperse the lumps before each use. that a diner could remove a portion of salt to his own Trencher plate The open salt remained the realistic method of serving freshly ground where he could place the meat in the salt with his own fingers. salt. I remember as a child being allowed to carve the large blocks of The earliest recorded salts originate from the first century AD and were salt into fantastic shapes before having to reduce it to powder. After the hollows in wooden Trenchers, later silver was used. In 1329 King lumping problem was solved the salt shaker became a permanent table Edward III reportedly owned more than 500 Trencher salts, mostly sil- fixture replaced only occasionally on the more elegant table with an ver. In 1625 Charles I recorded one of his salts in his personal diary as open salt. made of gold and jewels and weighing more than 150 ounces.

Pair Victorian circular silver salts Pair of silver salt spoons with with beaded edges on three feet, Queen Victoria’s head, made from London 1866, mark for Richard British-India two annas coins, 1. Pair of delicate hand blown Five chickens and two rabbits, Hennell, approx 5oz. £100-£125. 1890 & 1891. £5-£10 each. Venetian salts with three clear original 1940s salts each 3.5cm. feet. £65-£70 the pair. 2. 12 sided These salts were given to US cin- Bohemian salt, clear with ruby ema goers during the depression. red stripes. £20-£25. 3. Quartered £12-£15 ea. block pattern salt with pineapple and fan pattern in silver stand, G Duncan, 1895. £25-£30. Pair of boxed, cut salts by Lalique, c1970s, (they were the last salts of this pattern to come 1. Three Spatterglass master out of the Lalique factory). £200. salts, Webb, c.1890. £30-£40 ea. Sowerby purple and white slag 2. Pair of Murano salts with clear glass salt as a basket, applied rigarée, red and green 20/10/1888. £30-£40. glass encased in clear glass and opal insides. £35-£40 the pair.

1. Rare brown, figural master salt in shape of a cauldron, Sowerby, 1. Cut crystal salt. 2. Square, pinpointing design and concentric pressed salt by Davidson circles to the base, 1890. £30. 2. Rd.153858, 02/08/1890. 3. 1. Signed double porcelain salt Pressed salt with attractive bead- Pressed six sided salt, Sowerby from Ming Dynasty, Emperor ed design and three legs, prob. American master salt with fine Rd.96547, 24/03/1888. 4. A cut Xuante, 1426/35. £45-£50. American. £20-£25. 3. Amber flint silver overlay c.1920. £25-£30. crystal salt c.1890. All £3-£8 ea. 2. Modern double china salt glass, figural, collery truck by 5. Pair of pressed six sided salts, signed. £5. Henry Greener Rd. No. 218710 Sowerby Rd.87777 24/10/1887. 20/09/1893. £30-£35. £30-£35 the pair.

1. Pressed rectangular master salt with all over diamond pattern. £5. Top: pair of pineapple and dia- 2. Pair of pressed pedestal salts. mond cut salts with matching 1. ‘Crown Tuscan’ by £10-£15 the pair. 3. Pair of saucers. £15-£20 the pair. Degenhardt, 1970s. £10. 2. Pale square salts, signed Davidson Two pairs of early flint glass Bottom: 3 salts, 1 saucer in fine pink opaque salt by Davidson, (lion & crown) c.1870. £30-£35 pressed salts, prob. by Boston & diamond point by Heisey, all pre-1933. £12-£15. 3. Three-face the pair. 4-6. Identical to the top Sandwich Glass Co. 1825/50. marked ‘H’. £25-£30 each. salts, possibly repro. £25-£35. row, but square. £50-£60 per pair.

ANTIQUES INFO - May/June 05