Little Gems Worth Their Salt

Open salts, salt cellars, salt dips – by any name, these charming little additions to formal dinner tables are highly collectible and very attractive. Remembered most commonly as being part of fine Victorian dining, they’ve actually been around for centuries. They can be made out of glass, porcelain, or silver (these had glass inserts), they can be found in just about any color or shape including round, square, triangular, footed, or in novelty shapes.

In their day, one of these diminutive pieces was placed at each person’s place with its own tiny silver spoon, while a larger version called a Master Salt remained in the center of the table. While some people took pinches of salt with their fingers and sprinkled it on their food, the more refined way was to use the accompanying silver spoon.

Originally salt was not as finely ground as it is today. Salt of bygone eras came in large crystals, and it was only toward the end of the 19th century that salt was ground into the finer version we know today, which led to the birth of the salt shaker. Although some people continued using open salts into the turn of the century, they pretty much vanished from the dining table by the Depression Era.

Most open salts being manufactured today are made of glass as collectibles, and some companies are even using the original molds. The Open Salts Info website identifies the following marks as reproductions; check out the website for images and more info:
~ Avon
~ HFM (Henry Ford Museum)
~ MMA (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
~ MET (also Metropolitan Museum of Art, but this reproduction is from the 1930s)
~ Sandwich (Sandwich Museum Gift Shop) - old salts have “Lafayet”
~ Acorn or SM (Sandwich Museum) – old salts have “B. & S. Glass Co." (Boston and Sandwich Glass Company)
~ BMR (Bennington Museum Reproduction)

On the Open Salts Info website you can also find information about the National Open Salts Convention, collectors’ clubs, subscribe to their newsletter, find open salts for sale, and much more.

From personal experience, some of the most expensive open salts I’ve seen sell at auction were beautifully hand-painted porcelains; of course, there are some rare and intricate glass examples that can cost quite a bit as well. Reproductions still make for an affordable and very pretty collection, but if you’re a purist and only want original pieces, you can still find affordable examples in cut and pressed glass as well as porcelain.

You can find salts and other wonderful period pieces at Collector's Cottage.