Scottish Antiques-Collectables. Treen.

– Lidded & hinged salt box  with curved loop hanger, warm light and rich honey colours throughout.
– Staved alternating light / dark wooden vertical sections (like coopering for a whisky barrel), decoratively turned with attractive mouldings in two sections of embellishment towards the top and base around the circumference of the salt box.
– The light coloured woods used in Scottish treen are sycamore, holly, box, birch and the darker woods were alder, walnut, mahogany or Scottish Laburnum (this box is likely to be Sycamore and Alder sections).

Salt boxes such as this have similar dark and light staves as the Scottish vernacular ‘bickers’ (beakers) and ‘luggies’ (a small wooden Scottish pail or dish with a handle).  Treen items like this were common within Scottish Highland households and Scandinavia countries as wood was generally cheaper and more easily available than ceramics.

These vernacular treen items made by travellers or skilled coopers would have been kept close to the fire and wall mounted to keep the salt dry. Given that salt was  taxed and expensive these boxes wouldn’t have necessarily been in every home, but salt was known to be an important ingredient to both flavour and preserve food.