Collecting Antique Saltcellars

My mother was near to hyper when it came to her hobbies. She wouldn’t exactly drift from hobby to hobby, but had a collection of them that she would focus on in spurts as the mood hit her. Sometimes we were busy tracking down family tombstones, sometimes attending musical concerts, sometimes visiting greenhouses specializing in African violets, and sometimes we were seeking collectibles, most notably saltcellars.

Saltcellars generally can be categorized into two sorts. Master saltcellars held more, and a person might take a spoonful to use with their meal. Individual saltcellars, on the other hand, often simply called “salts,” were sometimes used to grab a pinch for use at a particular time.

Mother would have an idea of where she would go to find a large assortment of interesting things, and she always hoped to find a bargain. She was not terribly gifted at finding bargains. Once she bought a picture of Napoleon and his troops that she displayed in our living room over the fireplace. She later invited an antique dealer over that she knew well, and asked him what he thought of her latest find. He asked her how much she had paid for it. $25.00 she beamed. “You got taken,” he said. Whether or not she was talented, we had lots of fun and often a lovely lunch in a nice locale. One such locale was Flemington, New Jersey, well known for its flea market. On that day, we ate in a railroad car!

We generally went after salts from the “Lacy Period,” which were made around 1825-1850. These were attractive pressed glass, and were generally quite stylish in design. Here is one website that discusses Lacy Salts:

http://www.mccullohantiques.com/lacy_period_open_salts.htm

Salts were generally made of a heavier form of glass that contains a lot of lead. In addition, the glass was often fairly thick, thus making the salts stable. It has been claimed that this high lead content, unfortunately, makes the glass particular brittle, and thus subject to chipping. Lead in glass might seem foolish to use if such is the case, but in other articles, such heavily leaded glass is considered a particularly lovely thing. Leaded glass, if plicked with the finger, gives off a long-lasting melodious ringing, which, the longer it lasts indicates the higher the lead content.

One particularly nice URL for several images of master salts is:

http://www.patternglass.com/WksSalts/Salts.htm

Salts were generally out of vogue by the 1940’s, but some are manufactured even today, frequently in bright colors to attract customers, but some of which are made using early molds, thus imparting a measure of authenticity in their design.

The hobby of collecting salts presents some interesting features. They can be used to impart a sophisticated air when inviting company to eat, they are small, and for many people, they are affordable, in contrast to other household items.

One time a few years ago, I found an antique master salt that was not known to be a salt at all, but was in a Good Will store in a group of candle holders. Although it has a degree of wear, I treasure it, not just because it is an antique, or because it is pretty, but because it reminds me of those grand days when my mother was alive, and she would tell me to get ready to go on a trip in the car, we were going antique hunting!