Salt Cellar
Prior to the invention of the salt shaker in the nineteenth century, the salt cellar allowed diners to season their meal as generously or as frugally as they desired. Small circular, oval, or boat-shaped vessels such as this one were set with accompanying spoons at or between individual place settings. George Washington likely purchased this example after the Revolution when trade resumed with England and new glass forms decorated with cutting became available to the American consumer.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 189.