Grantley Salts

Acquisition of a set of six silver and parcel gilt salts, maker's mark of Robert Garrard II, London, 1824. A group of three male and three female Nubian figures resting on domed rockwork bases, cast and applied with sea shells. Each base supports a parcel-gilt scallop shell bowl, flanked by a reclining figure holding a scrolled cartouche-shaped shield engraved with the Grantley arms. The salts were probably commissioned as a wedding gift for Fletcher Norton, 3rd Baron Grantley, who married Charlotte Earle youngest daughter of the artist Sir William Beechey. Their Yorkshire homes were Grantley Hall and Markenfield Hall, near Ripon.