Featured Antique Brass Mortar and Pestle

My latest purchase. Online, no-less. I just love brass...

Beautiful, antique, Dutch-manufactured solid brass mortle and pester...I mean motarium et pistilium...whacker-and-bowl combination...



The lady I bought it from said that her mother had brought it with her from the Old Country (the 'old country' being The Netherlands) when she migrated out of Europe, presumably after the Second World War, or before.

No foundry marks, etc. But they are stamped with size-numbers...


The mortar is clearly stamped with '5', and the pestle is stamped with a rather worn out (or badly stamped) '6':





I've wanted a brass mortar and pestle ever since I knew they existed, but I was really picky about the styles. I like this type with the double-ended pestle and the ball handles on the sides. They look more classic and old-fashioned. And I like that in my antiques

 

Very cool. Shangus, very cool!

 

Thanks. Currently in the process of trying to sell my other mortar and pestle. It's about 1/3 bigger, and five times as heavy, so it's gotta go.

 

MANNNNNN... has to be a local sale, right? Or no? Shipping on that thing would be astronomical, yes?

 

Selling the other one won't be easy. According to my scale, it's 5lbs of solid brass, mortar & pestle combined.

 

Yikes... well, good luck!

 

NICE!!! Until I started looking, I never knew the brass ones were around in the 1700's!!!!!

 

Mortars and pestles have been/are made out of many things...

Wood, glass, marble, ceramics, stoneware and granite are very common today. In the past, brass and bronze were also extremely popular. They were made from about the 1500s or 1600s, all the way up to, I think, the early 20th century. Then they simply stopped being manufactured.

The one I have here looks very much handmade. The mortar looks like it was cast and then fused together. The handles and the pestle I'm guessing by what I can see, were turned on a lathe and tooled out from solid blocks of brass.

The two finished items were then struck with number stamps to indicate their sizes. Interestingly the numbers don't match. I'm wondering if, when you went to buy these, you could mix-and-match the sizes or something.

 

I've been talking with a guy who collects this stuff. He insists that this set is from the 1680s he says the style, patterning and methods of construction are typical of the era. When I told him it was Dutch, he said it was definitely at least 300 years old...



...I...I think I need to sit down for a minute...I'm in shock...

 

It bothers me that it's so shiny. I can't help but think that it should be patinated.

 

I know! That's what bothers me... And no I didn't polish this, if that's what you're wondering. This is how it came to me. I took these photographs about an hour after it came through my front door (and I wrestled with the packaging for about 30 of those 60 minutes).

The guy who told me this said that someone had obviously cleaned it (and there's still traces of lacquer on it from where it was applied, you can see it if you hold it up to the light). I asked him about six times and he was adamant that this thing is at least 300 years old. He said once he finds it, he'll send me more information that I can have a look at. He told me that the style and methods of construction pointed towards its age. The lathe marks, the wearing on the decorations, the condition of the rings on the base (which he said also had significance as being characteristic of certain braziers) and so-forth.

To his credit he does collect antique brass&bronzeware (and much older than anything that I own) so he may well be right. And I can understand and follow his train of reasoning...I just want a few other opinions first, or at least more information. He pointed out numerous antique Dutch brass examples online to show me the similarities between them.

Is there anyone here on this forum that knows anything about antique Dutch brass?

 

If they are that old and have been stripped of patina, that will greatly diminish the value, but it's still kind of cool.

 

If it's 300+ years old, it's been polished from many to a zillion times before. Someone got tired of doing it and lacquered it.

I've shined an acre or two of brass myself. I found that some floor waxes would save the shine for a while.

Too bad there are no letters, but those numerals have a distinctive font, that looks way old. Maybe they are datable?

 

I'm still trying to find something more concrete to tie this to the 17th century...I've seen a few examples but I'm not wholly convinced.

 

To be sure, I know nothing of typography, but have been looking at a few online resources.

It looks like the font of the numerals is consistent with late 18th century typefaces. I looked at Dutch Medieval fonts and stumbled on Didot (or Didone,) which is very similar. There have been revivals of many fonts.

 

Is there wear on the ends of the pestle or on the shaft, or on the interior of the mortar? Is there wear on the bottom of the mortar?

Things like this don't need to be polished. Cleaned maybe, but a thorough wipe would generally do the trick. They're generally used to grind dry ingredients.

Here's a very similar one currently listed on eBay. Look at it in terms of wear. I find it more convincingly old than yours, though that doesn't mean much. It would take a lot of dedicated polishing to remove signs of wear. (A lot less effort to add them.)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18th-19th-Century-Dutch-Bronze-Brass-Mortar-and-Pestle-/151959304306

This would have been a utilitarian object and not handled particularly gently.

The shape has been in use for a long time.

If you are still in doubt, I don't know that there's a lot you can do other than get another opinion with a hands-on inspection by someone knowledgeable.

 

Hi Moreotherstuff.

In answer to your questions...

There is definite wear inside the bottom of the mortar. There's several little dents and dings in the bottom of the bowl, and on the inside walls of the mortar (although moreso in the bottom, for obvious reasons).

The inside of the mortar also has a slight (but noticeable) concavity to it. I suspect that this is MORE a result of nonstop pounding and smashing, rather than by design, which makes me think that this is VERY old.

The bottom half of the pestle (which impacts with the mortar) has more wear than the top half.

Originally the pestle looked like this:

O=||==||==()==||==||=O

where O are the circular heads of the pestle, and the || are decorative grooves cut into the shaft. The () indicates the ridge at the midpoint of the pestle.

At one end of the pestle, the two grooves (both midway, and underneath the head) are clearly visible. At the other end, one set of grooves is almost gone (you can just see it if you hold the pestle right). To me, this speaks of years of pounding and crushing and the sides of the pestle striking the inside of the mortar.

I agree that this certainly isn't anything 'special' in the sense that anybody would've bothered to look after it. Back then, a mortar and pestle was a mortar and pestle - it was used, day in, day out, for years, for crushing, grinding and smashing things up.

The thing that gives me pause is the other issue you bring up - that similar styles were used for a LONG time. That's what makes me wonder.

I've seen several examples online, and right now, I'm dating this to the turn of the 18th century (give or take ten years). I can see it being that old, given what I can examine with my own eyes, but I wouldn't be comfortable dating it any more precisely than that.

 

Whatever it's age I think it is an awesome piece. Very cool. Just imagine the conversations it would have heard. It's beautiful.