Photo: courtesy of Sotheby's
Photo: courtesy of Sotheby's
Bell salts seemed to become fashionable in the 1550s.
This salt has three sections, the lower one on three ball feet, and the upper one functions as a pepper caster. It is chased with strapwork and foliate decoration and bears the maker's mark IB below a horseshoe. Salts were of the highest symbolic importance on the English medieval table and were widespread by the 16th century.
Provenance
J Dunn-Gardner; Christie's, 1902; Sir Ernest Cassel; then by descent.