Monumental French Antique Mortar & Pestle

In the south of France this was where the pistou got made, garlic and basil pounded by hand into a paste that takes its very name from the pestle. Found in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and dating to the 19th century, this large mortar is carved from a single block of pale stone, thick and heavy with lipped handles at the sides and a turned wooden pestle to work it. A mortar this size was the engine of a Provençal kitchen, grinding the salt, the almonds, the herbs, and the garlic that no machine had yet replaced, built heavy so it would not shift under the pounding. Sylvie sets it out on a kitchen counter with a few lemons beside it, a working tool handsome enough to leave on show.