A Set of Four Irish Silver Salts, John Hamilton, Dublin, Circa 1715

Sotheby's London, 18 May 2001, lot 13

John Hamilton was free of the Dublin Goldsmiths' Company in 1709. This type of gadrooned trencher salt was first produced in England in the 1680s by Huguenot makers such as Pierre Harache; the Hartmans formerly owned a similar set of four by Thomas Prichard, London, 1701, see Huguenot Legacy, no. 16. A set of four trencher salts by John Hamilton are mentioned in Tony Sweeney, Irish Stuart Silver, Dublin, 1995, no.1264 as being sold Christie's, London, 23 June 1920 for £120.

The crest is possibly that of Bayley or Rumney.