Silver Trencher Salt

Silver Trencher Salt, Edward Winslow (1669-1753), circular tapering form with molded base and gadrooned upper rim, shallow well, the body engraved "SM" for Sarah Middlecott, with "EW" touchmark inside well, ht. 2 1/4, dia. 3 3/8 in., approx. 2 troy oz. Provenance: Sarah Middlecott of Boston, for whom the trencher salt was made, married Louis Boucher, a Boston merchant on March 26, 1702. According to family tradition, Sarah's mother, Mary Chilton Winslow, married Richard Middlecott in 1672, and gave this salt as a wedding present to her daughter Sarah Middlecott. Mary Chilton Winslow Middlecott died in 1726. Well-known Boston silversmith Edward Winslow was a first cousin of Sarah Middlecott (Boucher). Exhibitions: Colonial Silversmiths- Masters & Apprentices, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1956. Note: The trencher salt has been on loan to and exhibited at the Yale University, Garvan Collections, New Haven, Connecticut, from December of 1937 to June of 2001. Literature: See Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers , p. 968 for maker's mark, and p. 979 where the salt is listed among Edward Winslow's surviving objects. -small 1/4 in. split on base edge, the lower portion of the maker''s mark in a shaped cartouche is obliterated by wear, also weighed at approx. 1 oz. 18 dwt.