Trencher Salt

Bartholomew Le Roux

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By about 1700, as mores changed and salt became more easily obtainable, small individual saltcellars set one to each trencher, or plate, supplanted the large standing salt of medieval origin. These trencher salts are among the earliest American examples known. They are exceptional not only for their exquisite design and workmanship but also because they have survived as a pair. Their form is a simple and beautifully proportioned composition, which balances the concave hemisphere of the well with the convex curve of the sides. Embracing the front of each salt is a cartouche containing the de Peyster family coat of arms and crest and engraved with characteristically luxuriant, New York early-Baroque acanthus foliage. The maker, Bartholomew Le Roux I, left Holland (where he probably trained) for London in 1685 and not long thereafter moved to New York. He was the first of three generations of New York silversmiths; a coffeepot (right; 1997.498.1) and salver also acquired this year by the Museum were fashioned by his son Charles. On loan form the de Peyster family since 1911, the salts have now, happily, entered the permanent collection.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art