Choice Little
Indigo-Blue Salt    

Northeast, ca. late 18th/early 19th century, appears to be maple. Best little salt cellar I have had in a long time.

Salt wasn’t always the inexpensive, free-flowing table staple it is today. Clean, dry salt in this period was relatively expensive, so large amounts were kept covered in crocks, and only a small amount brought out for meals, often in little salt cellars, to protect the main supply and to keep it as dry as possible.

This unlikely survivor has a delightful form with stepped base and tiny column supporting a broadly flaring bowl. Skillfully turned on a slow-lathe. Superb condition retaining complex surface of indigo blue paint and black (which may be variably oxidized blue). Interior shows darkening from contact of salt with wood, just what one should see in a salt.

Just 1 3/4 inches tall x 2 1/8 diameter. For a collector that loves early American painted treen.