Object Description
A large and imposing antique sterling silver salt of circular form and standing on a raised pedestal foot. Extremely heavy weight. Applied cut card decoration. To the centre is a hand engraved armorial within a decorative cartouche with a motto below, on the front is a crest. Weight 229 grams, 7.3 troy ounces. Height 5.5 cm. Diameter 9 cm. London 1729. Maker Louys Cuny, a good Huguenot maker.
Biography – Louys Cuny, Hugeunot immigrant, endenizened (naturalised) 8th May 1697, same day as Peter and Claudius Platel and John Chartier. Free 1703. First mark entered 1703. Second mark (sterling), unrecorded, circa 1720. Elected to the livery 1708. His son Samuel was apprenticed to him in 1710 and turned over to Daniel Shaw, free 1724 but did not enter a mark. Louys Cuny died 1733. There are many different spellings of his name – Louis, Lewis, Cugny, de Cuney…