Gurage Mukecha or Coffee Grinding Vessel

Dark and stocky, with a red-brown club of a stick, bulbous at the top.

This mukecha or coffee grinding vessel is Gurage, from Ethiopia, East Africa, and dates to the 19th century. It is wood. Wooden mortars are a common tool across the Horn of Africa, generally hollowed from a single block and used with a pestle to pound grain, spices or coffee. Compact, dark cylindrical vessel with a thick base ring and a small bump on its left side. A glossy, reddish stick with a swollen top and a tapering shaft tilts out of the hole. It is 7.25 inches wide, 7.25 deep and 6.5 high.

A stout little team with a stylish handle.