This rare mortar is of exceptionally high quality for a functional object of this kind. It is decorated with naked male trumpeters and bears the mark of an unidentified foundry, showing an anchor surmounted by a crown. The same mark appears on a smaller mortar, decorated with putti in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. These 'putti' mortars were apparently produced in larger numbers; the Museum has two examples of lower quality (inv.nos. 353-1889 and M.22-1938).

The word ‘mortar’ comes from the Latin ‘mortarium’, meaning ‘to bite’.
Objects like mortars were produced in a variety of materials and were, with their pestles, the primary means of grinding substances before the industrial revolution. Metal mortars were particularly effective for harder substances. During the 16th century when these mortars were made they would have been used in cooking and making medicines, cosmetics and other potions. They were found in hospitals, pharmacies and households (which also often produced their own remedies); in artist’s studios (for grinding colours) and in the alchemist’s workshop (for producing powders for use in experiments). The poisonous nature of some metals was known even in antiquity, and using substances ground in metal mortars was therefore potentially dangerous. However , probably due to their effectiveness, metal mortars continued to be used until powdered grinding machines took over. Of course non-metal mortars (notably ceramics, marble and wood) are still widely used.