Featured Solid Brass antique Mortar & Pestle. Heavy as Hell!!

Looks like the bottom might have table-wear....

 

das one rough table....

 

No doubt the table shows mortar-wear too...

 

Here's mine picked up from Charity shop for £3 ($1.50) recently 3ins high 4ins wide at the top. Think it is an old one as it's more like a bronze bell metal rather than brass.
I didn't polish it BTW.

 

...yes...the quote feature works just fine...?

 

May we see a pic of the inside focused on the bottom? I must wait until I see that to comment. Whatever it is at least you didn't overpay for it.

 

Hi SA,

Sorry for the late reply. I was out all day. Here's some better pictures:



The pestle stands up perfectly straight inside the mortar.




Base of the Mortar.


Side of the mortar.


Bowl of the mortar, and the grinding end of the pestle.

 

Thanks - looks ok, can't see anything that looks inauthentic.

I don't like the one posted above by house-the shape just doesn't look right and all the rings at the top looks like it is trying too hard to be an older item but doesn't know how. Maybe the inside would tell us something.

 

What sorta things would you be looking/not looking for?

 

Here's the inside. It does have a crack too, see outside. The weight is 1llb 8oz or 677gram which is pretty heavy for something which is only 3 inches high. I don't know if it would be lighter if it was brass but I'll take a chance if something is cheap.

 

Thanks H, not that it matters much but yours looks like it was made for decoration rather than pharmaceutical use. That doesn't ensure that it was never used to grind up something because there's some white residue in the small hole inside the bottom-:could also be polish residue. But real pharmaceutical mortars weren't sold with either the divot in the bottom nor the ridges near the top inside. The ridges would make it more difficult to empty the contents completely . A decorative item like yours would be made of brass not bronze.

 

So what's your opinion on mine, SA? Is it a pharmaceutical mortar? Or just a regular mortar? Old? Or new?

 

I'm leaning towards a newer origin myself. The interior isn't slick enough for a pharmaceutical application.

That said, mortars are used in many other ways. I have several large cast iron mortars. These are sometimes called mining mortars, and were said have been used to crush ore for assaying. No doubt they were used in other industrial applications as well.

A spark-proof brass or bronze mortar would be required for potentially explosive materials.

 

Looks like a pharmaceutical mortar to me, 19th or 20th C. Looks like a previous owner enjoyed ringing it because I can't think of any other reason for so many "dings" all over it. They were made by something striking it.