LONDON, 1607, MAKER'S MARK TS IN MONOGRAM

Details

A James I silver-gilt bell salt
London, 1607, maker's mark TS in monogram
Incurved tapering cylindrical, in three sections, on three ball feet and with reeded borders, the detachable rising domed cover with pierced ball and dart finial, the body and cover chased with scrolling sunflowers, Tudor roses and foliage on a pelletted ground, the body with a cartouche prick-engraved with initials '*C* E*D *', the cover with vacant cartouche, one foot engraved 'K'
9½in. (24cm.) high
11oz. (343gr.)

Provenance

Montague G. Thorold; Christie's London, 5 March 1919, lot 112 (£900 to Harman)
Anonymous sale [Francis P. Garvan]; Christie's London, 16 June 1931, lot 125 (£547 to Permain)
William Randolph Hearst, removed from St. Donat's Castle; Christie's London, 14 December 1938, lot 99
The Trustees of 7th Earl of Radnor's Marriage Settlement; Christie's London, 24 November 1971, lot 89.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

An example of the bell or standing salt in the Royal Museum of Scotland dates from 1562-3 (see P. Glanville, Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England, 1990, pp.90-91) and the form probably dates to the early part of the sixteenth century whence examples are known decorated with grotesques and arabesques. That the salt was an important part of display and wealth in England and the Low Countries is clear from the few surviving records and examples of this period. Glanville, op. cit., p.190 illustrates a Netherlandish group portrait of the 1620s in which the austerely garbed family gather around a table prominently displaying their bell salt. A bell salt of 1599, similar in shape and decoration to the present lot, and also from the William Randolph Hearst Collection, was sold Christie's London, 22 May 1991, lot 274.

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