Featured Wooden Mortar and Pestle?

Hello everyone,
I picked this up today and was looking to see if anyone could offer some insight as to its origin/history. It appears to be hand painted as the paint feels "Raised," off the surface.

I cannot identify a makers mark anywhere on the piece.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Respectfully,
Michael.

 

Welcome!
Please always use the full image button for all your photos always. You can go back to 'edit' and fix them.

 

Thanks!

 

Any marks or labels?
Always give sizes or at least something for scale such as a coin.
You should always show the bottom of items whether there are marks or not.

 

The mortar is 7" high with an outer diameter of 5" and an inner diameter of 3".

The pestle is 9.5" long.

Both pieces together weigh approximately two pounds in total.

 

I dunno if this helps at all, but the mortar and pestle were both lathe-spun. This means that they were originally solid blocks of wood, clamped onto a lathe, spun at high speed and then were carved out using chisels. You can tell that by the hole drilled into the base of the mortar (leftover from the manufacturing process).

I wouldn't hazard a guess as to how old this is.

Is that a recognisable coat of arms or crest on the side of the mortar? If it is, and if you can ID it, then it might help with finding out where it was made, and how old it is.

 

Could be a souvenir piece anywhere from the 30s - 60s. - that's my guess and I'm sticking to it.

 

Very nice Michael, it looks like a folk piece from the Balkans: Bulgaria, Serbia. My guess early - mid 20th century.
I don't think it is a souvenir piece, it has seen use, crushing red peppers possibly.

 

Souvenir pieces are sometimes meant to be used

 

Even by the locals.

 

Well I did some real fast research with the suggestions from this thread and very quickly came up with an Ebay auction for something strikingly similar to my mortar and pestle:



The auction lists it as being from the "Balkans," in origin and lists almost identical dimensions to the one I purchased. Awesome.

Link to the auction:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/152162627249?rmvSB=true

AnyJewelry, what about the piece tipped you off that it was from the Balkans?

I'm going to do some more digging about its history, which I'm having a bit more difficulty with.

Thanks again, very impressive!
-Mike.

 

AnyJewelry, what about the piece tipped you off that it was from the Balkans?


Knowledge.!

 

I suspect it was the decoration on the mortar that indicated the country of origin, but that's just my guess.

 

My mother collected European folk art, and I sang and danced in a semi-professional group specalizing in Bulgarian and Macedonian folk dances for a while. (Don't ask me why, but it was great fun, very energetic, and unusual rhythms.)
That light golden brown wood is very Balkans, and the decoration is like embroidery patterns, also very Balkans. Then you search your mind for matching embroidery patterns (ethnic dress collecting comes in handy in a case like this), and out come Bulgaria, Serbia.
If I had to pin it down to a country I would say Bulgaria, and the seller on eBay is in Bulgaria, so I didn't do too badly.
This is an authentic piece of folk art, it has real character.