The salt cellar is in the form of a throne with a pierced backplate with small circles and rectangles; the base is ridged to resemble planking and stands on bracket feet. The seat is engraved with an inscription which is  partly nielloed ('A meal is incomplete without salt or bread') and the interior is divided into two.

Traditionally salt was associated in Russia with hospitality, and salt cellars were kept at the entrance to the home, guests being offered bread dipped in salt as a welcome. Bread and salt were also integral to the ceremonies of betrothal and marriage. Salt thrones of this type became popular in around 1845 when they were placed on the table before the guest, a piece of bread resting on the seat of the throne. The shape of the back plate was intended to represent the isba – the traditional wooden house of rural Russia – and was often pierced to represent the windows, and occasionally the surface of the silver was nielloed or chased to resemble wooden planking. Russian aphorisms about the importance of salt and the motif of a cockerel were commonplace on such works.

Struck with city mark of Moscow, assayer's mark (1859), fineness mark (84 zolotniki), and maker's mark of Vasili Semenov; seat engraved in Russian, 'A meal is incomplete without salt or bread'.