BRONZE MORTAR WITH INSCRIPTION. SPAIN, 1823.

Inscribed mortar. Bronze. Spain, 1823. Bronze mortar with a flared mouth and a seamless, truncated cone-shaped body, tapering in diameter to the base. It features two handles or "pieces" toward the smooth decorative moldings on the top. The piece features, almost on the rim, an inscription (I AM FROM D. GREGORIO OCANA, YEAR 1823) in capital letters and a date in Roman numerals with spaces between them; and the text (reversed from the other) "Mazon fecci" (Mound of Fire); both flanked by a simple molding above and another below. This large mortar is of the type commonly known as "hospital" because it was commonly used for medicines in settings with many sick people or in important apothecaries. Typologically, it follows the usual pattern in these examples from the Spanish school during the 19th century: smooth, with moldings, and, as a rule, without the ribs (or derivatives thereof) that often appeared in the earlier ones. Compare, for example, with the large pharmacy mortar in the Municipal Museum-Archive of Calella (with an inscription, ribs, and human heads as handles), a large mortar and pestle in the Museum of Hispanic Pharmacy at the Complutense University of Madrid, etc.

· Size: 37x34,5x25 cms.