What is the origin of this heavy brass mortar and pestle?

This belonged to my Grandparents - a cousin thought it was used to create ashes from palms at their church, possibly. They were both immigrants in the early 1900s - Grandfather from Luxemburg, Grandmother from Italy. They were Lutheran.

 

Mortar and pestles were made in many areas (All pharmacies had them.) They are widely reproduced.

You should write what you know about your grandparents and keep it with it.

Welcome to the board.
Wait for others to comment.

 

KITTY!!!!!1!!!!!!!!11!!!!!

 

Cathy, could your gorgeous cat show us a close up photo of the mark on the base?

 

Yep - 7.

 

The 7 might equate to a measurement. Liquid or dry?

 

or size. apothecaries had a whole row of these.

 

Yes, but it would most likely be sized according to how much it held.

 

Welcome, Cathy and kitty!

 

As others have said, '7' is the size. They produced all kinds of sizes. I have one which is marked '5'.

In my observations and experience, old-fashioned apothecary-style mortars and pestles were crafted by being spun on a lathe. Usually, you can see holes or pits from where the chucks and lathe-points were drilled or punched into the metal, to hold it in place while spinning.

 

It has no holes or pin marks on the bottom, and the handles to don't appear to be welded on either - almost like it was milled out of one piece of brass.

 

Either the finishing was really well done, or it isn't that old.

When these things were made back in the old days, nobody bothered with trying to make them look pretty. You spun it, you carved in some decorative lines or circles, you shaped it...that was it. They wouldn't have bothered trying to hide, or cover up the pinholes left by the lathe. It was there to be USED, not look cute, so nobody would've cared.

If it's meant to be more decorative, than functional, then hiding all the manufacturing marks would probably be more of a priority than how robust it is.

That's my opinion anyway.

 

I always thought the old mortars and pestles were cast. They took pride in their work, so they would have been polished/buffed.
I thought the way to tell the new ones was the fact that the spun marks were not buffed out.

 

I've seen loads of antique brass mortars and pestles in antiques shops and vintage fairs and i've got about half a dozen in my collection. In every antique example I've ever seen, the pinholes from the lathe-turning are always left in. I think it was a deliberate act - meant to be a sort of "mark of quality" - like - if you see the pinholes, you know this was turned by hand on a lathe, and it was artisan-crafted, instead of mass-produced in a mold or something.

 

of course the real old stuff was cast. and if good quality you can hear it when hitting it like a bell.

 

it does ring like a bell when hit with the pestle

 

Here in the Netherlands mortars were often made by bell-makers, decorated in a similar way, and cast in the same foundries.