Mustard pot
Joseph Opinel
Based on a design engraving by Pierre Germain French
Not on view
During the eighteenth century, mustard was served at the table either as a dry powder or mixed with vinegar to form a paste or sauce. The dry powder was contained in a caster left un-pierced or fitted with a removable sleeve that blocked the holes. Most of the mustard pots in the Museum’s collection were made to serve the condiment mixed into a sauce; they take the form of a small jug barely distinguishable from a lidded milk jug with a spout. Some lidded pots have an opening to accommodate a small spoon. The silversmith Joseph Opinel (1715–1794) based the shape of this mustard pot on a design by Pierre Germain plate 58 from his book entitled Elements d’Orfeverie Divisés en deux Parties de Cinquante Feuilles which was published in Paris in 1748 (see 18.62.1).
Daughter of one of the founders of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, Catherine D. Wentworth (1865–1948) was an art student and painter who lived in France for thirty years. She became one of the most important American collectors of eighteenth-century French silver and on her death in 1948 bequeathed part of her significant collection of silver, gold boxes, French furniture, and textiles to the Metropolitan Museum. The collection is particularly strong in domestic silver, much of it provincial, and includes several rare early pieces.
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