Three 19th-century turned & coopered fruitwood hanging salt boxes 10¾"

A trio of nineteenth-century Scottish lidded and hinged salt boxes with curved loop hanger. Note their lovely turned wood shapes and delightful coloring. One is larger with a warm honey brown color, and the slightly smaller pair feature alternating wood tones. The staved body is made likely from fruitwood, constructed from staved wooden sections like coopering for a whisky barrel, with alternating dark/light wooden vertical sections in the Scottish manner. The circular back piece allows the salt box to be hung on a kitchen wall.

They can be wall mounted or simply sit. Highly collectible, these would make a delightful start to a collection or simply to bring additional charm to your kitchen walls. These salt boxes are known as "treen" items. Treen items like this were common within Scottish Highland households and Scandinavian countries as wood was generally cheaper and more easily available than ceramics. These 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 flavor and preserve food. Sources: - Cotton, B.D. (2008) Scottish Vernacular Furniture. London: Thames & Hudson. - Grant, I.F. (1988) Highland Folk Ways. London: Routledge.