Im/mortar/lity

A family weekend and the kitchen springs back into life.

Here son Huw grinds dried chillies for a Thai meal. He's using a stone mortar that has been in the family for 3 generations now, sometimes serving as a bird bath or a plant pot along the way. I don't know its weight but you could say goodbye to your toes if you dropped it.

My father must have bought it at the old Caledonian Road antiques and bric-a-bric market in north London. He haunted the place through the 1930s when with his keen and knowledgeable eye he could spot rare and interesting items , many of which would have ended up on the stalls (at knock-down prices) without their owners' permission.
"The Caledonian Market laboured under an infamous reputation as a place where stolen goods might legally change hands, owing to an obscure medieval law known as market overt (or marché ouvert), which guaranteed a buyer title of ownership if an item was bought in good faith here between sunrise and sunset, whatever its provenance. "

The original Cally closed at the start of WW2 and afterwards relocated to Bermondsey where it still exists - but I doubt many bargains are to be had these days.


Needless to say, the meal was excellent.