Folk Art - Rare Stone Mortar - Haute-loire, 19th Century

An exceptional commemorative stone (basalt) mortar, bearing a family name, sculpted, openwork, and dated 1851. This basalt mortar, made of an igneous rock found in abundance in the Forez region, is round with four lobes. The inscription "Jean-Baptiste Ferraton – French Republic" is engraved around the upper rim, followed by the date 1851. Each of the four corners is sculpted with a figure: Napoleon III, a couple accompanied by their initials (ZE and Jean-Baptiste), a woman carrying a bag, and a man with his hands in his pockets. The Ferraton family is found primarily in the Loire region, and particularly in the Forez. The date 1851 may symbolize a marriage (although no record concerning a Ferraton has been found for that year), but also a patriotic attachment to the French Republic, in the context of the coup d'état of December 2, 1851, led by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (the future Napoleon III). Craftsmen—tailors, locksmiths, blacksmiths, stone sculptors, etc.—often expressed their republican attachment through their tools, mortars, snuffboxes, holy water fonts, or crosses, engraved with inscriptions such as "French Republic," "Liberty," "Equality," etc. These objects were not mere decorations: they constituted veritable silent manifestos of the people against imperial power.