The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 22, 2025

Triple Salt Cellar

c. 1765

Mennecy Factory

(French)
France
Soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration
Overall: 7.7 x 10.2 cm (3 1/16 x 4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1953.279
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

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

Description

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.
  • (Cesar de Hauke, Paris).
  • Decorative Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 8, 1961-January 7, 1962).
  • {{cite web|title=Triple Salt Cellar|url=false|author=Mennecy Factory|year=c. 1765|access-date=22 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1953.279