A standing salt of the time of James I, with the London hall-mark for 1613, was sold at Christie’s in 1903 for £1,150. The height of this is 11³/₈ inches, and beyond its special value on account of its age and rarity, its form is not possessed of greater elegance than many a lowly pepper caster whose presence it would scorn on the same board. From the rare Henri II majolica of the sixteenth century to the humble trencher salt, the range of salt cellars is a comprehensive one. The most sumptuous examples, set in a magnificence of chased design exhibiting the finest craftsmanship of the goldsmith and silversmith, command high prices on account of their rarity, and old salts of exceptional character place their collecting in the hands of the elect whose cabinets are known all over the world. But there are many lesser examples of the silversmith’s work, and it is not yet too late to acquire pieces suggestive of days when at the table “the jest was crowned at the upper end and the lower half made echo.” The City Companies possess many fine examples, and among the college plate at Oxford and Cambridge there are many unequalled specimens of the high-standing old salts. There is the silver-gilt plain salt presented by Roger Dunster to the Clothworkers’ Company in 1641, and another a drum-shaped salt, silver-gilt, the “Guift of Daniel Waldo, Clothworker, Esquire, an^{o} 1660.” Then there is the circular salt and cover, 22 inches high, of the Goldsmiths’ Company, with the date letter of the year 1601, which was “the guift of Richard Rogers, Comptroller of His Maj^{ties} Mynt” ... “desiring the same may bee used at their solemne meetings and to bee remembered as a good benefactor, anno d^{ni} 1632.” This salt has a body of glass, round which are two silver-gilt collars in chased and repoussé work. The Goldsmiths’ Company have other salts, notably one the “Gift of Thomas Seymour” in 1693. The Haberdashers’ Company have a circular salt the gift of Sir Hugh Hammersley in 1636. The Innholders’ Company have two circular salts the gift of John Wetterworth in 1626, and a circular salt, silver-gilt, 16 inches high, with a dome raised on four scrolls, terminated by an obelisk, the gift of Anne, widow of John Sweete, 1635. The Ironmongers’ Company have two fine silver salts, parcel gilt, shaped like hour-glasses, having six-foiled sides, in three of which is foliage engraved. The date of one is 1518 and of the other 1522. The Skinners’ Company have a silver-gilt octagonal salt 9 inches high, the gift of Ben Albin, a member, in 1676. The Mercers’ Company salts we are enabled to illustrate by courteous permission. The Vintners’ Company have a fine silver-gilt salt, the gift of John Powel, Master of the Company, in 1702. It is like a square casket in form, with panels richly decorated in bold relief with figures, and the cover surmounted by an urn upon which stands a female figure. [Illustration: ELIZABETHAN BELL-SHAPED SALT CELLAR.