"The Great Salt"

Artists

Description

Plain spool form, applied with reeded borders, the flat top with central well flanked by three cast free-standing outwardly curving scrolls with flared bases, the base engraved G over IE, the side under the rim later engraved (upside down): The Gift of Mr. Richard Harris of Cambridge. 1644

Dimensions

11.8 x 16.8 cm (4 5/8 x 6 5/8 in.) 594 g

Provenance

Jose Glover, ?, passed to his wife, Elizabeth, upon his death, 1639. Rector of Sutten, in Surrey, England. Planned to introduce printing to New Eng. Mrs. Elizabeth (Harris) Glover, from her husband, Rev. Jose Glover, at his death, 1639, transferred to her brother, Richard Harris. Transferred to brother in part payment of debt. Richard Harris, Bequest to Harvard College, 1644. The Great Salt was brought to America in 1638 by Jose Glover, who hoped to establish the first printing press in America but who died during the trans-Atlantic voyage. In 1641, Glover's widow Elizabeth married Henry Dunster (1609-58/9), Harvard's first President. Upon her death in 1643 the salt was bequeathed to her brother Richard Harris, probably a tutor at the College, who left it to Harvard upon his death in 1644.