A Grisaille enamel salt-cellar showing scenes from the life of Hercules

Limoges, attributed to Pierre Reymond, circa 1560

Inscription: LA NATIVITE DE HERCVLES
Inventory numbers in orange ink under the foot : G-R. 764a (Maximilian von Goldschmidt Rothschild, 1938) and M-41A (unknown).

(Some old restorations at the rim of the salt and the rim of the base. Some losses to the white enamel on under the base)

Provenance:
- George Salting Collection (1835-1909), UK;
- Baron Maximilien von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Collection (1843-1940), Frankfurt am Main,
Forced sale to the town of Frankfurt am Main in 1938 (inventory number G-R 764a). Transfered to the Museum für Kunsthandwerk (nowadays Museum für Angewandte Kunst), returned to the heirs in New York in 1949,
Its sale: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, Furniture and Objets d’Art from the Estate of the Late Baron Max von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, 10-11 March 1950, lot 62;
- Private Collection, South America,
Its sale: Sotheby’s New York, 1 June 1991, lot 49;
- Blumka Collection, New York;
Its sale: Sotheby’s New York, European Works of Art from the private collection and Gallery of the Blumka Estate. 9-10 January 1996, lot 137 (unsold);
- Sale Sotheby’s New York, 31 January 1997, lot 150;
- Private Collection, Paris;
- Sale Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Pierre Bergé & Ass., 26 June 2019, lot 74;
- Private Collection, Limoges.

Exhibitions:
- 1897 - London, Burlington Fine Arts Club : Catalogue of a Collection of European Enamels From the Earliest date to the End of the XVII. Century, p. 23, n°82, showcase IV.
- 2022 - Un beau capharnaüm ! Émaux et collections. Limoges, Galerie des Hospices (10 June - 3 Septembre).

Scenes :
The infant Hercules strangles the snakes in his cradle,
Hercules and the Nemean Lion (after Aldegrever),
Hercules carrying the columns of Gades (after Aldegrever),
Hercules killing the Lernean Hydra.