MARK OF ROBERT GARRARD II, LONDON, 1857

These salt cellars were likely designed by the celebrated French silversmith, J. V. Morel, based upon a pair of salt cellars of the same model marked by Morel in 1851 (see Sotheby's, New York, 16 April 1996, lot 216A). Morel, who was working in London following the 1848 revolution, returned to Paris in 1852 following the collapse of his business. It is postulated that Garrard acquired the models for these salt cellars upon Morel's return to France. A set of four salt cellars by Robert Garrard dating to 1857 sold in these Rooms, 20 April 2001, lot 239. Two from the set are illustrated in Michael Clayton, Christie's Pictorial History of Illustrated English and American Silver, 1985, p. 300, no. 3. That set of four and another silver pair, also dating to 1857, are illustrated in J. B. Hawkins, The Al-Tajir Collection of Silver and Gold, 1989, p. 192, no. 57.