BRONZE MORTAR WITH INSCRIPTION. SPAIN, 1823.

Mortar with inscriptions. Bronze. Spain, 1823. A bronze mortar with an everted mouth and a truncated conical body that tapers continuously towards the base; it has two handles or "pieces" leading to the smooth decorative moldings on the top. Near the edge, the piece features an inscription (I AM FROM D GREGORIO OCANA YEAR 1823) in capital letters and the date in Roman numerals with spaces between them; and the text (reversed from the other) "Mazon fecci"; both flanked by a simple molding above and another below. This large mortar is of the type commonly known as a "hospital mortar," frequently used for preparing medicines in environments with many patients or in important pharmacies. Typologically, it follows the typical style of these examples from the 19th-century Spanish school: smooth, with moldings, and generally lacking the ribs (or derivatives thereof) that were common in earlier mortars. Compare, for example, with the large pharmacy mortar in the Calella Municipal Museum-Archive (with inscription, ribs, and human heads as handles), a large mortar in the Museum of Hispanic Pharmacy at the Complutense University of Madrid, and so on.

· Size: 37x34,5x25 cms.