Salt cellar with spoon

The salt cellar, made in Ludwik Nast's goldsmith's workshop in Warsaw, dated to the 2nd quarter of the 19th century, is one of the more popular items that were made by the famous family of goldsmiths. Ludwik Bernard Nast, born around 1801, arrived in Warsaw from Heilbronn in the second half of the 1820s and established a workshop there, which in a very short time gained a reputation as one of the best goldsmithing workshops. After Ludwik's death, his wife Julia ran the workshop and silver warehousing until 1854, and when their son, Ludwik II, obtained his master's qualifications, he took over his father's workshop and ran the company under his own name until 1887. The trademark of the Nast factory, placed on the products of the workshop, became Uroboros – an ancient Egyptian and Greek symbol representing a snake with a tail in its mouth, which devours itself and is reborn from itself.

The presented salt cellar from the Nast’s goldsmithing workshop is a small object made in silver with a slightly raised oval base with a rim decorated with vertical fluting, on which two dolphins carry a boat with turned-up edges and with two volute lugs decorated with floral motifs. The two dolphins carrying the boat on their tails are also an interesting decorative solution. Already for the ancient sailors (mainly Greeks and Romans) they were a symbol of the gods' protection and guidance, and their presence by the ship was supposed to be helpful not only in setting the course, but also in overcoming the waves. Therefore, it is not surprising that the maritime motif was used in an object intended for serving white gold, as salt was once called, obtained, among other methods, by evaporating sea water.