salt and spices

shelf 4

Typically made from a plant’s root, bark, fruit, or seeds, spices can be used fresh or dried. They can be crushed or combined with other ingredients using a weighty pestle in a mortar, ground into a powder, or in the case of nutmeg’s hard seed, grated with a specialized tool. Containers for storing spices were designed to be airtight and secure, like the multi-compartment silver box from India, the world’s largest producer, exporter, and consumer of spices.

 

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A tin and silver nutmeg grater, it has rounded corners and a shield on the lid.

American

Nutmeg Grater, 1800s

Tin with silver

Bequest of Miss Sarah C. Durfee 15.917

A silver nutmeg grater that is abstractly shaped like a nutmeg seed.

English

Nutmeg Grater, 1800–1850

Silver

Gift of Mrs. Gerard P. Herrick 59.141.17

A bronze double ended pestle that is thicker at the ended and thinner in the middle.

Italian

Pestle, 1500s

Bronze

Bequest of Miss Ellen D. Sharpe 54.147.21

A bronze mortar with protruding decorations on the exterior.

French

Mortar, 1500s

Bronze

Bequest of Miss Ellen D. Sharpe 54.147.6

A creamware ladle with a shell shaped bowl and simple necked handle that comes to a flared out point with linear decorations.

English

Creamware Ladle, ca. 1775

Earthenware with glaze

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke 24.510

A white bowl with a flowered rim. Image of an eagle with an anchor in the center.

Chinese (for export)

Punch Bowl with Arms of Rhode Island, ca. 1800

Porcelain with glaze, enamels, and gilding

Gift of William A. Viall III in memory of Gretchen Viall 2016.102.22

A dark silver spice box that is sculptural and has many different rounded compartments.

Indian

Spice Box, mid- to late 1800s

Silver

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke 15.157