A pair of Dutch silver salts, late 19th century

of hexagonal form, the panels engraved with strapwork, enclosing six ovals depicting the Apostles, each with their various attributes, further engraved with their names; S. Philippus, S. Bartholemeus, S. Petrus, S. Andreas, S. Jacobus maior, S. Johannes, S. Matthias. S. Paulus, S. Thomas, S. Mattheus, S. Jacobus minor, S. Simon, above a border of cast strapwork, projecting lobed rim, the base cast and chased with winged cherubs’ heads and fruit clusters amongst scrollwork, with marks on one of the panels (2)

Salt has not only been used throughout the centuries as an indispensable commodity in households, but also in religious services, both Christian and Jewish. In the Catholic Church salt is considered to be a symbol of wisdom and fertility and is offered at christenings. Otto Vaenius in his Amoris divini emblemata depicts an emblem with the motto Animae sal est amor. De Liefde Godts is ´t rechte sout....

Salts have been made in a great variety of styles, shapes, sizes and materials. From the large elaborate standing salts like the famous one by Cellini and the ceremonial great salts to the smaller salt cellars for individual use at the dinner table.

Salts of this size and shape from the 16^th and 17^th century, however, are seldom found. Two rare German parcel-gilt silver salts of similar shape, applied with ovals depicting female personifications of Harvest, and struck with the maker’s mark PX, probably for Peter van Ixem (II), Frankenthal, early 17^th century were sold in our rooms, Sotheby’s London, 11 February 1999 as part of the famous Rothshild and Rosebery collection, Mentmore. Thomas de Keyser’s painted in 1630 Portrait of a young silversmith; the sitter is holding an almost similarly shaped salt. See Catalogue of the exhibition of Works by Holbein & other Masters of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1950-51, no 448.
Another Frankenthal hexagonal and finely engraved salt of the same period used to be in the J.R. Ritman collection was sold by Sotheby’s Geneva, 16 May 1995. The above mentioned Thomas de Keyser’s painting influenced the attribution then to a Dutch silversmith. Also J.W. Frederiks, who attributed this salt to an anonymous master, probably from Amsterdam. See J.W. Frederiks, Dutch Silver, The Hague, Vol II, no 176. The salt is engraved with mythological subjects in ovals depicting Apollo and the Python, Apollo pursuing Daphne, Jupiter and Io, Deucalion and Pyrrha, and The Triumph of Neptune.

Salts of hexagonal shape also appear in some paintings by Frans Hals: Maaltijden  van de St Jorisdoelen,1616’ and Maaltijden van de Cloveniersdoelen, 1627, both in the collection of the Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem, see Exh. Cat. Zout op tafel, Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1976, p.12. Another painting with a hexagonal salt is that of Frans Pieterz de Grebber, Haarlemse Colveniers, 1600. See Exh. cat. Schutters in Holland, Zwolle, 1988, p. 116.

The pair of salts now offered, however, display biblical figures, possibly referring to a passage in the Bible in which Christ calls his disciples “salt of the earth” (Matth. 5:13).
Engravings of apostles or saints usually appear on silver objects ordered by Catholic commissioners in the 16^th and 17^th century. The style of the engraved panels of these 19^th century salts is probably after Paul Flint (Holst. VIII p.50).