Research Catalog

Title

A royal Renaissance treasure and its afterlives : the Royal Clock Salt / edited by Timothy Schroder and Dora Thornton.

Publication

• London : The British Museum, [2021]
• ©2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Schroder, Timothy
• Thornton, Dora
• Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.

Description

v, 142 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 30 cm.

Summary

At centre stage in this volume is the Royal Clock Salt, an exceptional national treasure from the courtly culture of the Renaissance. Most probably made in Paris around 1530 by Pierre Mangot, the royal goldsmith to Francis I, the Clock Salt is somewhere between a jewel and a table ornament. Now part of the collection of the Goldsmiths' Company in London, it is one of only a handful of treasures surviving from the renowned Jewel House of Henry VIII. It is unknown whether it was a diplomatic gift from Francis I or whether Henry VIII bought the Clock Salt himself; regardless, the object raises interesting questions about the role of diplomatic gifts at the Tudor court which is a subject addressed by a number of the authors. Many questions still remain about the Clock Salt's history following its sale in the aftermath of the English Civil War, but this publication presents the fullest account to date of what is known about the object. Importantly, the authors also place it within a wider European Renaissance context by comparing it with other similar objects known to have been made or designed by Mangot and his contemporaries such as Hans Holbein. A secondary strand in the volume places the Clock Salt in the context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century taste in England and, in particular, reflects recent trends in scholarship by considering the influence of European collectors such as the Rothschilds on the British taste for historic silver. The volume therefore sheds new light on an exquisite object that has beguiled and fascinated owners and viewers for centuries. It also marks the completion of a collaborative research project between the British Museum, the Goldsmiths' Company and The Rothschild Foundation.

Series Statement

Research publication, 1747-3640 ; 227

Uniform Title

Research publication (British Museum) ; no. 227.

Alternative Title

Royal Clock Salt

Subject

• Mangot, Pierre, approximately 1485-after 1551
• Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths > Art collections
• Clocks and watches, Renaissance > Great Britain
• Saltcellars > Great Britain
• Clocks and watches, Renaissance
• Great Britain

Note

• This volume brings together the papers given at an international conference dedicated to this object and its history that was held at Goldsmiths' Hall in London in November 2018.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 132-137) and index.

Call Number

JQG 22-869

ISBN

• 0861592271
• 9780861592272

OCLC

1233165420

Title

A royal Renaissance treasure and its afterlives : the Royal Clock Salt / edited by Timothy Schroder and Dora Thornton.

Publisher

London : The British Museum, [2021]

Copyright Date

©2021

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Research publication, 1747-3640 ; 227

Research publication (British Museum) ; no. 227.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 132-137) and index.

Added Author

Schroder, Timothy, editor.

Thornton, Dora, editor.

Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.

Research Call Number

JQG 22-869