A Samuel Gilbody (Liverpool) shell salt or sweetmeat c.1755-60

A Samuel Gilbody (Liverpool) shell salt or sweetmeat c.1755-60, formed as a deep shell painted to the interior with a flowering spray in red and gilt, the dish raised on a cinquefoil base encrusted with further small shells, 11cm across.

Provenance: from a private collection in Surrey.

A very similar salt from the Crane Collection (Bonhams, 31st March 2010, lot 199) was exhibited by Simon Spero in 1993, number 20. A similar dish from the Watney Collection is illustrated by Alan Smith, Some Finds at Liverpool, ECC Trans, Vol 7, Part 2, 1969, Plate 116a.