Eight salts and salt spoons
David and Robert Hennell I
Category
Silver
Date
1763 - 1805
Materials
Sterling silver
Measurements
100 mm (Height)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 872307
Summary
Eight salts, sterling silver, six by David and Robert Hennell I, London, 1763/4 and two by Robert Hennell I and Samuel Hennell, 1804/5. Eight associated salt spoons, sterling silver, by George Smith III and William Fearn, London, 1794/5. The plain, compressed oval body of each salt has been raised from a flat sheet of silver. The cast and applied rim is wavy and gadrooned and the four scroll feet rest on shell pads and are connected to the body of the salt with asymmetrical scroll cartouches. The spoons are of the Old English pattern with a downturned terminal, twisted stem and a single drop at the junction with the circular bowl. Heraldry: Engraved on one long side of each salt and on the upper side of the terminal of each spoon is the Parker crest beneath a baron’s coronet for John Parker, 1st Lord Boringdon (1735-88) (the salts of 1763/4) and for John Parker, 2nd Lord Boringdon (later 1st Earl of Morley, 1772-1840) (the salts of 1804/5 and the spoons of 1794/5). The baron’s coronet must have been added to the earlier salts after the creation of the title in 1784. Hallmarks: SALTS - Six are fully marked on the underside of the body with the sterling lion, maker’s mark DH [/] RH in a cross with a central pellet for David and Robert Hennell I (Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths 1697-1837 (1990), no. 472), leopard’s head crowned and date letter ‘H’ for 1763/4. Two have the sterling lion, leopard’s head crowned, maker’s mark R pellet H over S pellet H for Robert Hennell I and Samuel Hennell (Grimwade, no. 2338), date letter I for 1804/5 and monarch’s head facing right. SPOONS – All fully marked on the underside of the terminal with sterling lion, date letter ‘t’ for 1794/5, monarch’s head facing right and maker’s mark GS over WF for George Smith III and William Fearn (Grimwade, no. 910)
Full description
Salts were intended for the dinner table, often placed to be shared by two guests, and these examples, with their gadrooned borders and shell feet, formed part of the dinner service acquired by John Parker, 1st Lord Boringdon (1734/5-88) and expanded by his son, the 1st Earl of Morley. The principal suppliers of silver to the family between 1755 and the 1770s were the major London retailer, George Wickes, and Wickes’s successors, John Parker (no relation) and Edward Wakelin, but the ledger likely to have covered the purchase of these salts is missing. [1] The earliest archival record of them, along with the two added by the future 1st Earl of Morley in 1804/5, is in the 1886 list of plate at Saltram (NT, Saltram) where they are listed as ‘8 [salt cellars] oval’. They are marked by David and Robert Hennell I who were members of a dynasty of silversmiths specialising in salts and producing numerous variants in large numbers of the circular, three-legged variety. Four-legged ovals such as Saltram’s are rarer and only one other example sporting rococo, scrolling cartouches at the head of the legs has thus far been identified: on a pair, also of 1763/4, sold at Chiswick Auctions, 19 March 2024, lot 455. The salts would have been supplied with glass liners which were sometimes blown directly into them and often had a star cut into the base. Surviving examples are extremely rare and none are listed in the 1886 plate list. In 1886, alongside these oval salts, there were ‘6 Salt cellars round chased’ and ‘4 [ditto] round plain’. The former are revealed by the Sotheby’s sale catalogue of 19 January 1956 (‘The Property of the late the Rt Hon. The Earl of Morley’, Lot 154) to have been by Benjamin Godfrey, 1733 and 1739. They were of the heavy, lion-mask pattern also produced by Paul de Lamerie and are likely to have been acquired by John Parker I whereas the oval set were probably supplied to the future 1st Lord Boringdon on setting up his London household in Sackville Street following his first marriage, to Frances Hort, in 1764. The four plain round salts are listed in the 1956 sale catalogue (Lot 120) as being by Edward Wood, 1745, and David Hennell, 1750. They are likely to have been of the standard, three-legged variety to be found at Ickworth (NT 852073), and would have been for everyday use. Though the eight associated salt spoons are marked for 1794 they may have been acquired in 1804/5 along with the two later salts. The spoons supplied with the 1763/4 salts may well have been traded in at the same time. Fifteen 'Twisted' salt spoons are recorded in the 1904 plate list (photocopy at Saltram). An even number would have been supplied originally so the set may have been intended for use with all eighteen of the salts, as noted in 1886. James Rothwell, National Curator 12 July 2025 NOTES: [1] Garrards, the ultimate owners of the business, deposited the ledgers in the National Art Library at the V & A. The missing ledger covered the period from around 1760 to 1765. The entry therein is referred to in the next volume (ref. VAM 7 John Parker and Edward Wakelin, Gentlemen’s Ledger 1765-1775, f. 214). The account of John Parker of Sackville Street (no. 16 was his London house from 1764 to 1769 when he moved to no. 29) is noted as being brought forward 'from Folio 258 GL[Gentlemen's Ledger] No. 1'. This must have been the first ledger of Parker and Wakelin following their takeover of the business. [2] For a history of the Hennells and illustrations of many of their salts see Percy Hennell, The Hennell Salt Cellars 1736 to 1876, 1986.
Provenance
Six of the salts were acquired by John Parker (later 1st Lord Boringdon, 1735-88), probably from Parker and Wakelin in 1764; by descent to his son, John Parker, 2nd Lord Boringdon (later 1st Earl of Morley, 1772-1840) who added two more salts and the salt spoons; by descent to Edmund, 4th Earl of Morley (1877-1951); accepted in lieu of Estate Duty by HM Treasury and transferred to the National Trust in 1957.
Credit line
Saltram, the Morley Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
David and Robert Hennell I, goldsmith Robert Hennell I and Samuel Hennell, goldsmith George Smith III and William Fearn, goldsmith