Triple Salt Cellar (c. 1765): Art, History and Details

Triple Salt Cellar (c. 1765) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Mennecy Factory (French).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In 16th-century France, salt was costly and often displayed in exceptionally designed and decorated salt cellars that reinforced wealth and status. Still elegantly designed and ornamented, this triple salt cellar is small, a result of the decreasing decorative and symbolic importance of salt in the latter half of the 1700s. With its floral decoration and whimsical monkey-shaped handle, this object’s design is characteristic of the Rococo style.

Object facts

• Title: Triple Salt Cellar
• Date: c. 1765
• Creator attribution: Mennecy Factory (French)
• Culture: France
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.7 x 10.2 cm (3 1/16 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1953.279

A detail from the museum

This triple salt cellar might have held a variety of ingredients including powdered spices, celery or garlic salt.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.