Gurage Mukecha or Coffee Grinding Vessel

Plump and reddish, with a deep dark hole and a polished lip.

This mukecha or coffee grinding vessel is Gurage, from Ethiopia, East Africa, and dates to the 19th century. It is wood. The Gurage are a people of south-central Ethiopia, known for farming and for the cultivation of enset, a plant sometimes called the false banana. Wide, heavy cylinder in rich mahogany red with a ring-shaped step at the base. The top is a broad flat rim around a rounded, deep opening, and fine scratches and radial lines mark the surface. It is 7.5 inches high and 8.25 in diameter.

Solid and glossy, with all business and no fuss.