Scottish Vernacular Staved / Banded / Lidded Salt Box c.1890-1920

For sale is a charming antique Scottish vernacular wall mounted or free standing Salt box from the early 20th / late 19th Century. Constructed from staved wooden sections like a coopered barrel with alternating dark/light wooden vertical sections in the Scottish manner. - Lidded & hinged salt box with curved loop hanger, warm light and rich honey colours throughout. - Staved alternating light / dark wooden vertical sections (like coopering for a whisky barrel), decoratively turned with attractive mouldings in two sections of embellishment towards the top and base around the circumference of the salt box. - The light coloured woods used in Scottish treen are sycamore, holly, box, birch and the darker woods were alder, walnut, mahogany or Scottish Laburnum (this box is likely to be Sycamore and Alder sections). - In good condition throughout with age-related wear and marks from utility. Salt boxes such as this have similar dark and light staves as the Scottish vernacular 'bickers' (beakers) and 'luggies' (a small wooden Scottish pail or dish with a handle). Treen items like this were common within Scottish Highland households and Scandinavia countries as wood was generally cheaper and more easily available than ceramics. These vernacular treen items made by travellers or skilled coopers would have been kept close to the fire and wall mounted to keep the salt dry. Given that salt was taxed and expensive these boxes wouldn’t have necessarily been in every home, but salt was known to be an important ingredient to both flavour and preserve food. A charming antique vernacular item ready for providing decorative utility in a kitchen or fireside for storage. Ref: - Cotton, B.D. (2008) Scottish Vernacular Furniture. London: Thames & Hudson. - Grant, I.F. (1988) Highland Folk Ways. London: Routledge.