Now Showing: WOOD (through Sunday, June 17)

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:43:14 +0000

Jewelry by Twenty-Six International Artists

WOOD seeks to explore the exciting new jewelry using wood as the primary material. Ideas of sustainability, preciousness and the sensuality of this humble material are the focus of this new exhibition.

Kenta Katakura White Sycamore Ring

Kenta Katakura African Black Wood Ring

Kenta Katakura White Sycamore Ring

View all available images from this exhibition

Velvet da Vinci Gallery
Contemporary Art Jewelry and Metalwork
2015 Polk Street (between Pacific and Broadway)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-441-0109

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Now Showing: Tom Hill: Salt Cellars (through Sunday, June 17)

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:11:03 +0000

Exhibition Catalog Available

Salt and Salt Cellars, a potted history

It is perhaps hard for us to imagine the importance of salt in the past. What seems to us an everyday item was, before modern refrigeration, a vital ingredient in the preservation of food. Roman soldiers were paid in salt ration, hence the words "salary" and "soldier", vegetables were seasoned to improve flavor, giving us "salad" and, perhaps most deliciously of all, pork is combined with salt to create "salami".

Salt was a rare and expensive commodity. Salt cellars were lockable to prevent theft and the condiment was presented on ever more elaborate vessels to emphasize the prestige of the grandest tables.

Kings and aristocrats commissioned extravagant salt cellars, known as "nefs" or "Great Salts". Notable Salts include the amazing example by Benvenuto Cellini depicting Ceres and Neptune and the Exeter Salt owned by Queen Elizabeth the Second, given to King Charles the Second by the City of Exeter in the hope that he would forgive the city's part in the overthrow and execution of his father (it did the trick). Nefs in the form of golden galleons and silver castles graced the richest tables, creating animated sculptural landscapes to feed both the eye and the stomach.

We still throw spilt salt over our shoulder to blind the devil, give salt cellars as good luck housewarming gifts and describe the most trustworthy people as "the salt of the earth".

Hinged Black Bird with Pink Interior (detail)

Hinged Black Bird with Pink Interior (open)

View all available images from this exhibition

Velvet da Vinci Gallery
Contemporary Art Jewelry and Metalwork
2015 Polk Street (between Pacific and Broadway)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-441-0109

If you use iGoogle, use this button to add our news feed to your iGoogle page:

Velvet Da Vinci Gallery News

Now Showing: WOOD (through Sunday, June 17)

Now Showing: Tom Hill: Salt Cellars (through Sunday, June 17)