Limoges enamel hexagonal salt, by Colin Nouailher

An image of Hexagonal Salt. Limoges Painted Enamel. Nouailher, Colin (French, b.1514, act.1574). Hexagonal with straight sides, projecting upper and lower edges, and a concave central depression in the top and base. Copper, enamelled en grisaille on a black ground, and gilded; the top also enamelled in turquoise-green, and the base in turquoise, and pale mauve. The decoration of this salt is related to the theme of the Ages of Man. The prime of life is represented by Helen, the beautiful wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, and by Paris, who provoked the Trojan War by abducting her. The middle-aged and old men and women on the sides are accompanied by inscriptions which indicate that despite their age, their interest in love-making endures. Height (whole) 8 cm, width, across points, 10.9 cm, width, across flat sides, 10 cm, circa 1540-1545. Limoges, France.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Hexagonal Salt. Limoges Painted Enamel. Nouailher, Colin (French, b.1514, act.1574). Hexagonal with straight sides, projecting upper and lower edges, and a concave central depression in the top and base. Copper, enamelled en grisaille on a black ground, and gilded; the top also enamelled in turquoise-green, and the base in turquoise, and pale mauve. The decoration of this salt is related to the theme of the Ages of Man. The prime of life is represented by Helen, the beautiful wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, and by Paris, who provoked the Trojan War by abducting her. The middle-aged and old men and women on the sides are accompanied by inscriptions which indicate that despite their age, their interest in love-making endures. Height (whole) 8 cm, width, across points, 10.9 cm, width, across flat sides, 10 cm, circa 1540-1545. Limoges, France.

Image data

Accession Number: M.50-1904
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/18.0
Focal length: 100
Camera: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
Photographer name: Michael Jones
Image height: 1024 pixels
Image width: 975 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6 (Macintosh)
Filesize: 258.34kB
Exposure time: 1/100
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 18/1
Captured: 2008:01:22 23:18:33

Key words

16th Century Artist/Maker Artistic Movement Colin Nouailher Date Department Fitz_AA French Limoges Material Medium Nationalities Object Type Other Keywords Paris People Renaissance Workflow _WF_AdOK _WF_KWD _WF_OPAC _WF_PCtd ages of man bust copper costume enamel enamelled gilded grisaille hats heads hexagonal male old profile salt

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Limoges enamel hexagonal salt, by Colin Nouailher"
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-115286 Accessed: 2024-12-27 18:43:22

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-115286
            |title=Limoges enamel hexagonal salt, by Colin Nouailher
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-27 18:43:22|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/images/media-187483

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa30/M_50_1904_1_mas.jpg"
        alt="Hexagonal Salt"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Limoges enamel hexagonal salt, by Colin Nouailher</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>