MARK OF JEAN-BAPTISTE-FRANÇOIS CHERET, PARIS, 1762

Double salt-cellars were used for salt and pepper whilst triple salt-cellars were intended to hold fine salt, coarse salt, and pepper or other spices such as nutmeg. The concept of triple salt-cellars was therefore not uncommon in 1762. This specific basket-shaped model seems to have been first created in Sèvres Manufacture around that time, and many other examples in porcelain have survived. Conversely, the present silver versions appear to be the only known examples. Which version came first is a mystery. Of course designs were widely available to artisans and the popularity of the porcelain model could have prompted the commission of more precious versions. Indeed, porcelain manufactures and leading Parisian goldsmiths frequently responded to the same courtly fashions under Louis XV and Louis XVI and during the 1760s-1780s, silver and porcelain workshops often borrowed successful forms from one another.

Another version of this model in a double compartment also by Jean-Baptiste-François Cheret and dated 1762 is in the collection of the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris (26866 A) illustrated in G. Mabille, Orfèvrerie française des XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe siècles: catalogue raisonné des collections du Musée des arts décoratifs et du Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, 1984, p. 48, no. 63.