English white porcelain mortar with pour spout in the rim and footed base.
Label Text:
Throughout history mortars and pestles have been indispensable to the practice of creating and dispensing medicines. Every apothecary’s shop would have contained at least one of these combinations to pulverize, grind, and mix the tinctures, pills, and poultices that were prescribed. Because of their close association, the mortar and pestle has become symbolic of the practice of pharmacy. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, as the medical profession became increasingly aware of the toxicity of certain metals, mortars and pestles made of lead, tin, and early pewter compositions were gradually replaced by those made of glass, porcelain, marble, and stone.
