Drysalters were dealers in a range of chemical products, including glue, varnish, dye and colourings. They might supply salt or chemicals for preserving food and sometimes also sold pickles, dried meat or related items. The name ''drysalter'' or ''dry-salter'' was in use in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

by the early 18th century when some drysalters concentrated on ingredients for producing dyes, and it was still current in the first part of the 20th century. Drysaltery is closely linked to the occupation of salter which in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

simply meant someone who traded in salt. By the end of the 14th century there was a guild of salters in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Later ''salter'' was also used to refer to people employed in a salt works, or in salting fish or meat, as well as to drysalters. In 1726,

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

described a tradesman involved in the "buying of

cochineal The cochineal ( , ; ''Dactylopius coccus'') is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the natural dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessility (motility), sessile parasitism, parasite native to tropical and subtropical Sout ...

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

s, shumach,

logwood ''Haematoxylum campechianum'' (blackwood, bloodwood tree, bluewood, campeachy tree, campeachy wood, campeche logwood, campeche wood, Jamaica wood, logwood or logwood tree) is a species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is na ...

fustic Fustic is a common name for several plants and a dye produced from these plants: * A dye made from ''Maclura tinctoria ''Maclura tinctoria'', known as old fustic and dyer's mulberry, is a medium to large tree of the Neotropics, from Mexico to ...

madder ''Rubia'' is the type genus of the Rubiaceae family of flowering plants, which also contains coffee. It contains around 80 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and subshrubs native to the Old World. The genus and its best-known spe ...

, and the like" as both dry-salter and salter. The Salters' Livery Company tells us that "some of the members who were salt traders were also 'Drysalters' and dealt in

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

, logwood, cochineal,

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

es and chemical preparations." Being a drysalter might be combined with manufacturing – paint, for example – or with trading as a chemist/druggist or ironmonger/hardware merchant.''Scotsman'' In contrast, a wet-salter could refer to a fish curer or to someone

tanning Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

leather by wet salting hides.

References

External links

Drysalter's Shop in the 1930s
* Jill the Reckless, P. G. Wodehouse, "Jill The Reckless", Chapter VIII (II): 'The Dry-Salters Winged Derek' *

Michael Symmons Roberts Michael Symmons Roberts FRSL (born 1963 in Preston, Lancashire) is a British poet. He has published eight collections of poetry, all with Cape (Random House), and has won the Forward Prize, the Costa Book Award and the Whitbread Prize for Poetr ...

; (2013); Drysalter; Jonathan Cape; (winner of the 2013 Costa Poetry Award). Obsolete occupations Sales occupations {{job-stub

References

Further reading

External links