Sweden
Early 18th century
Limestone

Imagine: someone made this by hand. They painstakingly carved an octagonal mortar out of a single block of dense Swedish limestone so that the layers of ancient sediment created a painterly ombre around the vessel. Then they ornamented the darkest top layer by incising Neoclassical swags into the surface. The maker had to love the material and the slow, laborious process. And then for more than three hundred years this mortar and its matching pestle were used with love, to be discovered by us and presented to you.

This is a functional and soulful artwork, with many more generations of use to offer.