Food Preparation Implements in the Home have perhaps the best energy, flavor, and patina of anything in the Collection. Food preparation is the heart and soul of home and village life. It is done with care, love, and thoughtful attention. One can taste the love in the food and feel the care from the tools used to cook and serve it.
Small, scooped out cutting boards with animal head handles that have been in use for 75 years or more, are included in the collection of implements from Java and other Indonesian islands. The wooden sticky rice trays from Thailand have been used for generations, and the serving bowls and trays from the tribes of the outer islands of Indonesia come to us after 100 to 150 years of family use.
All of these pieces were used for everyday meals as well as celebrations. They represent family and community sharing the most joyous time to the day — mealtime. Their beauty and symbolic nature are lovely reminders for us to honor what’s truly important in life.
Perhaps most interesting of this group are the wood and stone herb and medicinal mortars. Our collection of stone mortars from northern Thailand, China, and the islands of Indonesia are usually 200 to 400 years old and sculpturally beautiful. The wonderfully eroded, small wood mortars are all shapes, sizes, and ages and have a similar feel.
