When one thinks of today of a condiment set most people generally have thoughts of a salt cellar, a pepper caster, and a mustard pot. This three-piece combination is almost unknown before the very late nineteenth/early twentieth century. In the eighteenth-century items were bought in a much more random fashion. The pepper caster makes its appearance in the early eighteenth century unlike salt cellars which were made in earlier times. The mustard pot with lid was broadly being introduced in the 1760s.
The first condiment sets are usually what are termed today ‘Warwick Cruets ‘- after the Earl of Warwick for whom the silversmith Anthony Nelme made one in 1715.A Warwick Cruet contained within a fitted frame a large sugar caster and two smaller casters which were used for peppers and spices ( sometimes one of the casters was unpierced and these were for dry mustard).Alongside these three casters there were two glass bottles with silver caps which were used for oil and vinegar .By the mid-1770s the Warwick cruet fell out of fashion and was replaced by glass and silver casters and bottles held within a frame .The amount of bottles and casters held in the frame varied somewhat. These cruets continued to be made right up to the early twentieth century when they seem to fall out of favour to be replaced by the three-piece salt cellar, pepper caster and salt cellar that people are perhaps more familiar with today.
Whether it’s a Warwick cruet from the middle of the eighteenth century or a condiment set from the twentieth century William Walter Antiques always have a fine selection.
