Salt and pepper cellar by Manuel Vieira Carvalho

This important salt and pepper cellar of triangular obelisk shape standing on three cast lions’ feet, features a lower ‘bombé’ salt container and an upper concave pyramidal shaped section that hides a pepper holder, surmounted by an equally cast figure of Minerva.1[1]

Attired in cuirass all‘antica, plumed elm and sword suspended from the belt, Minerva is depicted frontally, left hand resting on a large oval shield. Roman goddess of wisdom and defensive war — matched to the Greek Pallas Athena — it is the tutelary deity of the arts and knowledge, a role that entitles her to preside over the iconographic and symbolic discourse of this erudite container.

Salt, and particularly pepper, were expensive commodities whose presence on the table, in a particularly conspicuous and precious vessel, signalled the host’s prosperity.2 [2]Throughout the Modern Age, complex salt, and salt and pepper cellars, evolved into sophisticated display objects which, well beyond their practical use, were imbued of ceremonial meaning in terms of the hierarchy of guests’ placement around the table, relatively to the cellar displayed near the host. In their format they adopted a variety of shapes derived from prisms — cylindrical, oval, rectangular or octagonal —, or more complex designs such as tall vessels surmounted by figures and of elaborate feet, footed bowls or tripods, small containers, cups or vases, or obelisks such as it is the case with the example herewith described.

The erudition of the late 17th century repousse and chiselled decoration chosen for this object, with foliage and acanthus friezes, hybrid feline and human classical masks, high relief cast and applied caryatids, as well as feet lions and top figure, is reinforced by the chisel mastery of the silversmith Manuel Vieira Carvalho (1679 –1726) brought to bear onto this important display cellar, conceived for an aristocratic Portuguese table, of which very few examples survive and none in Portuguese public collections.

It features an Oporto assay-mark for Manuel do Couto de Azevedo, active 1694 – 1721 (M.A. P– 11.0), and a maker’s mark ‘C/M.V’, attributable to Manuel Vieira Carvalho, active 1693–1726 (M.A. P–211.0) stamped to the cover rim, as well as a scratched mark for gauging the alloy silver content.[3] These correspond to two of the earliest Portuguese silver marks registered after 1688 when, following from a large hiatus, marking by Municipal assayers as well as by maker’s, becomes, once again, compulsory in order to avoid illegal practices.[4] In Oporto, between 1694 and 1769, Municipal assaying was the responsibility of the Couto de Azevedo family, first with Manuel and later with his son João do Couto de Azevedo, the former being responsible for the marks herewith referred.[5]

This cellar belongs to a small group of five similar Portuguese silver objects produced between the late 17th and the early 18th century, of which only one other is hallmarked. Of the four other extant cellars[6], one, silver gilt and 24.3cm in height, features Lisbon assay-marks dating from the late 17th century to 1720, and a maker’s mark, used until 1720 by Johann Friedrich Ludwig, the German gold and silversmith known in Portugal as Ludovice. It formerly belonged to the collection amassed by Sir Francis Cook (1817 – 1901), 1st Viscount of Monserrate, and later to the Foundation Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva (FRESS) Decorative Arts Museum, in Lisbon, where it remains (inv. 1023).[7] Of cast animal feet, it features austere chiselled acanthus and cartouches decoration; the top, albeit turned and screwed, similarly to our example, ends in baluster shaped finial.

A second gilt silver cellar, belonging to a Lisbon private collection, presents armorial shield for the Fonseca or Coutinho families. Of lion feet, it has cast high-relief female busts applied to the base, and profuse foliage motifs decoration, particularly large acanthus leaves that protect the base and the truncated pyramid vertical edges. A third example, also in a Lisbon private collection, features zoomorphic feet, cast lions’ heads in the ‘bombé’ base and cartouches to the upper section surfaces.

The fourth cellar, of zoomorphic feet and cast putti heads to the base contrasting with the chiselled acanthus surface, is equally kept in a Lisbon collection, having been acquired at Sotheby’s Paris on April 29th, 2009, under lot number 169.

Of this small group, the one herewith described is undoubtedly the most refined and of more accomplished aesthetic and technical mastery, both for its erudite repousse and chiselled decoration and for the diversity of the tridimensional cast elements that adorn its surface.

The Oporto silversmith Manuel Vieira de Carvalho, of whom little is known and from whom we only know six marked works, amongst which a jug, a wine taster, and a censer, can be counted as one of the most accomplished silversmiths from the 17th to 18th century transition. From amongst this restrict number of works stands out an exceptional gilt silver hand washing basin (Ø 58.0 cm) belonging to the FRESS Decorative Arts Museum (inv. 71). Formerly in the Rothschild collection[8], the basin is defined by a central medallion depicting a nude Neptune riding a dolphin on the water surface, framed by a band of twisted laurels. Its ‘cavetto’ is decorated with foliage scrolls alternating with classical masks and winged caryatids, and the lip with ‘rinceaux’ motifs alternating with shells, birds, and classical masks. Both the erudition of the ornamental repertoire — certainly inspired by engraved prototypes published by Jean Bérain, The Elder (1640–1711) and his followers, spreaders of the ‘Berainesque’ style — and the exceptional mastery of the chiselled decoration, are analogous to those of the salt cellar herewith described, which features identical hallmarks.

Such engraved models include a set of nineteen prints published under the title ‘Ornemens peints dans les Appartemens des Tuilleries dessinez et grauez par Berain. A Paris chez N. anglois rue S. Iacque a la Victoire auec priuil. du Roy’, ca. 1690 (Bibliothèque de l’Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, collections Jacques Doucet 8 RES 89).