Dear Louise,
I wrote a mortar report, but it included few visible details and I thought that you might find it interesting to read about differentiating stoneware mortars that you might find in markets. There are gaps in my knowledge. The chief one is that I did not start tracking the Tha Uten Nakohn Phanom mortars until 2017. It seems I could easily have conflated these mortars with those of Phon Bok. Also, had I known I was to become an expert on this important pottery form I might have kept notes.  There are a lot of twists and turns in identification, such as use of salt, on pottery copying the forms of other potteries, changes in clay body properties. It would not surprise me if one of the sellers of mortars in Dankwian is more able to identify a mortar’s manufacture location, but I suspect I am the only one so interested.

My only contact with Ratchaburi mortars is from the day before my marriage to Gail Busch. When I did finally visit 8 years later there I saw no mortars. I purchased the mortar in San Francisco, new, in  June 24, 1981 . It has stenciled slip decoration produced just like the dragon jars do, although most of the dragon jar decoration is done freehand. Because mortars have tighter curved forms the stenciling is not as neat as it is on larger forms. The outside of the mortars are glazed in what almost certainly is the same glaze as the water jars. This is a fritted lead glaze. Tao Hong Thai kiln still had a fritting kiln that was in use annually in 2014 (visit and interview with owner).
The mortar is on the small size. This points to less use as a tool for Som Tum and more of a tool to grind and blend spices. It is quite vitreous and evenly fired as are the dragon kiln fired dragon jars. The body, glaze, and slip have the same appearance, just as would be expected. The original pestle (saag) appeared to be sugar palm wood. When I bought it I had no idea what kind of wood it was.

The rim of the Ratchaburi mortar has a similar profile to rims of Kohkred mortars, although smaller. The Ratchaburi mortar rim is not as cleanly detailed. The pot is slightly warped.  (clay inclusions need mention). The clay body is dark and tight. My limited experience feeling the clay leads me to believe that it is kaolitic rather than bentonitic like Dankwian clay. This mortar has resided on my cooking counter for the last 15 years alongside my stone mortar from Ang Sila mentioned below.

My Koh Kred mortar has a much lighter clay body than the Ratchaburi mortar, but the clay is tight. It appears to be fired quite hot, my guess being cone 8-10 based on the appearance of ash. Of all the mortars it is the most tightly detailed. Given the highly decorated earthenware pots of Koh Kred and Pakred this makes a lot of sense. Some of the people in the village spend a lot of time working on detailing, concentrating on this as a concern more important tha

0 910f 02801e0300240400300a00780208 4551e0 4241b8 42f190 3d71ce 3ba1d4 42b1da 42a1e0 44a1da 436n utility, or at least approaching the importance of utility. Stacks of the these mortars in kilns are one of my favorite images from my 1989 trip. These are no longer produced and it seems like production was gone soon after my mid 1990’s trip. I will try to lay this timeline out in a short article that might be entitled, “Visits to Potteries by His Majesty King the late King Bhumipol”. It is going to talk about visits to Pakred and Kirimat potteries.

Dankwian mortars used to be able to be singled out by the narrow rim and the two incised lines under the rim. These lines in traditional pots were a place to wrap a cord or wire to hold a cracked pot together, but in my decades of visiting Thailand I have never seen them used this way. It is possible that they were during harder times before my first visit. It also seems likely that someone used them this way and I never saw it. It seems reasonable to conclude that the functionality of these lines was past by my first visit. As decorative ware production was ramped up in the early 1990’s mortar production faded. However, the mortar during that time continued to be used as an production object to train young potters. Once you have successfully made 1000 mortars you have the skills to move on to water jars. During this time Ubon mortars started to predominate sales even in Dankwian and Dankwian mortars disappeared from US sales.

Ubon mortars used to be able to be identified just by the thick roundish profiled rim. But Ubon clay appearance can also be used. It is especially apparent on the rim. The clay is the smoothest of the mortar making potteries using darker clay. Pakred clay can be quite smooth but its color is so different its hard to get confused.  Ubon potters do put some attention into smooth forms and along with the clay’s properties can make for lushious (sp) surfaces. The pots are devoid of sharp details. In pots since the mid 1990s the salt surface sets them apart. Other than the by then defunct mortar potteries of Koh Kred,  I have seen no salt like surfaces to confuse them with. I am told that there is some use of salt in Dankwian, and this does make some sense, the use in Dankwian that I have, or might have seen is light salt, just a light brown sheen in imitation of Phao Dam , traditional black fired ware. The newer Phao Dam seems to be achieved with help. Oddly today (2026-09-10) at the Asian Grocery in Corpus the mortars showed no clear sign of salt. They were punky (porous). They were wrapped in Chinese language newspaper although there was a crumbled Thai language newspaper in the pile. This could have been a Chinese language paper from Thailand, they could have been rewrapped, and they could be knockoffs. The clay looked right though. Ubon mortars used

I do not have enough examples to be sure that I can tell the difference between Tha Uten Nakon Phanom mortars and those of Phon Bok. However, how they are made is apparent in the surface. Tha Uten mortars are formed over a mold and the outside texture makes this apparent. Phon Bok mortars are thrown. This also is apparent. Both tend to have thicker rims with a sharp delineation of the rim on the outside, almost a square corner between the rim and the outside form. The rim extends on the outside of the wall. Ubon mortars lack this detail and the rim tends to extend on the inside (this prevents some splashing when working with wet ingredients.  There are also no sharp corners on Ubon rims.

The clay in both Tha Uten and Phon Bok feels unlike a bentonitic silt. My assumption from this is that they are kaolitic,, but my experience with them is too weak to be really sure. Some earthenwares in use in the NE appear to be like Dankwian Clay, bentonitic silts, but all other clays feel more like Kaolitic clays. Feel is a poor way to do mineralogical analysis. The mortars from these two villages are fired more evenly and harder than the mortars from Dankwian and Ubon.

Let me start my usage portion of this text by just saying what is obvious outright, “If you want the best Som Tum then you must use a Dankwian mortar.
That said, there is a big differential in who buys what. Some of this is due to location of potteries, some has to do with price, and some of the decision is just distance. For the most part mortars only flow towards Bangkok. You won’t normally find Ubon mortars in Nong Khai, or Phon Bok ones in Ubon.

Near the mortar makers villages the only mortars you should expect to see are local ones. However, wages in Dankwian and less efficient production creates a situation where you are unlikely to see Dankwian mortars. Further, since about 2005 any mortars that you might seen in Dankwian that were made there might have been made with rims mimicing Ubon or Phon Bok. You would have to identify them by the clay. The Dankwian mortars are rarely can occasionally be found. They almost exculsively have Ubon rims and forms . Some that I saw on Facebook this year had bases that were much broader than either Ubon or  older Dankwian mortars and looked like undetailed copies of old Pakred mortars. Chang Pratheep is supposed to send me some photos. Oustide the occasional mortars from Dankwian, mortars from Ubon, Phon Bok, and Nakorn Phanom are the only ones you will usually see. If you look hard enough you might find a few Dankwian mortars. I think that they are made by potters hard up for cash.

Even Back in 1989 when Dankwian mortars were still being made they were not the preferred mortars of professional som tum makers. They were just not durable enough. I believe that this is inherent in the bentonitic silt that they use for making pots. It appears to have less tensile strength than the bodies used in the other potteries. Back in 1989 the professionals in Bangkok used Pakred Mortars although those from Dankwian were available in places for purchase. Pakred mortars were more expensive, even with transportation costs. I wish that I had numbers for you, but I am relying only on memory. I might have it on my list of collection items I brought back. The clay, I think even when fired hot is just not as durable as Phon Bok or Pakred Clay.

But since the demise of the Pakred Mortar Kilns in the 1990’s the favored commercial som tum makers kroks were from Phon Bok. These days you do see some that appear to be from Nakon Phanom being used, especially the bigger sizes.

Although not pottery, I would be remiss if I did not discuss Ang Sila Stone mortars. After all I have entitled this part of my work, The Mortar Report, not the Clay Mortar Report, likely I should add Thai to the title.

Ang Sila mears “stone basin” and is a part of Chon Buri Province. Beyond the mortars they also carve figurative sculpture, animals, large basins, and wonderfully round spheres. I have not visited since 1989. Looking on Google-Earth I believe that the carving has moved indoors from out in the sun and weather. I have not located the area of production on a modern map.

The mortars are thick igneous rock that I am told is granite. The outsides were formed with hammer and chisel, and the insides were made with a combination of a diamond right angle grinder blade , hammer and chisel and finished with a masonary silicon carbide stone, also on an offset grinder. The outsides are coated in a clear lacquer type coat. I am unsure of its composition and I have not seen this being done.

The pestles for these mortars are also granite. When we were there they were being exclusively being carved by women. It should be clear that the process of using a mortar and pestle is a goo analogy for heterosexual intercourse, and the pestle representative of a penis. They let us take their pictures, but were embarassed. I took pictures before “getting it” and noting the exclusive gender carving them.

Stone mortars are generally not used for Som Tum and are generally used for mixes that do not contain liquids although exceptions are everywhere. They are great for hard dry spices, a use that the stoneware mortars are not great at. Kitchens in Thailand need both in order to be thought of as well equipped.

Basins in Ang sila can be quite large. We saw a pair that were about 2, maybe 3 meters across being carved. They took about a month’s work. It was amazing to watch someone removing 1/4 inch on the interior of one in order to refine the form.  I will get size details closer when I attach a photo.

I was not particularly impressed by the quality of the figurative and animals carved when we were there. They were not very refined and tended to be in standard static poses. There was at least one person carving a dense sandstone however whose work was more dynamic detailed and refined. I wanted to go back and get video of just him working but was unable.
Whole Gallery

• Repairology
  
  My brother Ralph bought a car used from a dealer. It had been repaired after a collision, but the repair was not evident. He uses the car for commuting. It had a new bumper fascia put on it as part of the repair but the fascia was painted without first applying a bonding agent to the plastic.. The fascia is the soft part of the bumper. The paint is peeling off of it. For someone wanting a neat car, this car has become grungy.
  
  Last year a construction “barrel” ( I one of those orange and white stripped affairs designed to damage cars in construction zones), blew in front of the car on the highway. Ralph did not report it or file an insurance claim. It would have been a hassle and life is busy. The barrel ripped the fascia. He now thinks that maybe he should have filed a claim. So it goes.
  
  A few days ago he drilled some holes on either side of the tear in the bumper fascia and connected the two sides together with plastic cable ties. The cable ties are white. The fascia without the paint is black. According to Ralph, ” the cable ties are what I had”. This got me thinking of repairs, how they are made, and why they are made, and how they are perceived. Right now the categorization slicing instrument in my brain is slicing “repair” into five different kinds.
  
  Coverup. (also known by the name “Buyer Beware Repair” or repair by gonif גנב)
  This is the kind of repair that is not supposed to be seen. Cars are often fixed after collisions so that you cannot see the repair. The same brother had the case of repair that he did not see and he bought a different car with damage. In Thailand 30 years ago we saw cracked water jars being skillfully repaired in the city of Ratchaburi with cement and then covered with skillful trompe l’oeil painting. These repairs cover a perhaps functionally deficient product so that it looks undamaged. If you are tuned in to the idea of ” buyer beware” then this sort of covering up of defects is acceptable. If you believe that the seller should point out faults in a product then they are not acceptable repairs, unless we are first told of them.
  
  

  Ratchaburi Jar being painted (1989)

  Dis-appearance: In Phon Bok Thailand Stoneware mortars that have chips or surface details that are not perfect have them covered up with super glue covered with ashes. These repairs cover only cosmetic “flaws” that would lower the price because of appearances. Mortars that have functional defects are used for landfill, to make decorative walls, they are not sold. The mortars have to take a lot of abuse and are not expensive. If damaged they are not worth the hassle. Even the makers do not try to cover up functional defects. This would lower the value of their products.
  
  

  Cosmetic repair in Phon Bok

  
  
  Just Repair: This is just a repair. No, or little consideration is made concerning the repair. It is just repaired. Nothing is covered up or concealed. This is the kind of repair that is held in high regard by Soetsu Yanagi when discussing Korean wooden bowls. It has a stance of honesty, of thusness, it is what it is. The bowls are turned from green wood. When they crack, they are repaired. This is what my brother did. He repaired his bumper with available cable ties. No cover up, no intent to do anything but make it functional.
  
  
  

  Bumper fascia repaired with cable ties (photo credit Ralph Katz)

  Intentious Repair:
  This is a Just Repair specifically made with the intent of looking like a just repair. Pretentiously, rather than just making the repair, the intent is to make it look like you did not care about appearances. You not only might not care, you want others to know that you don’t. Louis does these. The picture of a bumper posted to the web by a sophisticated artist, even if the art is music, makes me wonder if Ralph’s qualifies as intentious. I have not asked. Either way it has sparked my interest. I have appreciated it. The bumper, at least in my mind is interesting. Appreciated it enriches life. Appreciation appreciates the value of an object or event. 
  I have shirts that I bought in 1989 in Thailand. In Thai the name of the shirts seems to be “humble shirts”. I wore mine every wash until they got fairly worn. Others would say “worn out”, but I prefer “broken in”. After that I wore them on non-school days. My personal feeling is that these shirts still have use with a little repair, and that long use is as functional, maybe more functional than recycling. So I have repaired these shirts. They are repaired rather funkily, wow spell check has “funkily”! The repairs are so obvious and perhaps overdone that they might go beyond intentious into the next category, The Conspicuous Elevation of Repair Repair.
  
  Conspicuous Elevated Repair, Kintsugi.
  
  Kintsugi is a Japanese repair technique often used on ceramics using urishi lacquer, a natural resin. It is water proof and holds up to mild heat. The repair resin, made from the sap of the urishi tree, is sometimes filled with iron oxide, but the upper layers are often instead filled or surfaced with gold powder. This makes the repair, a record of the objects history and its breaking, obvious. It makes the damage obvious, making it impossible to ignore. It holds, displays, asserts that use becomes tangible part of an object. In highlighting use and wear it elevated repair seems to demand that bowls are drunk from and not just displayed that you know it and that you remember.
  
  Rather than coverup, rather than mourning the inevitable, kitsugi is an affirmative joyful appreciation of the mutual arising of creation and destruction, afe, wear and tear, and eventual breaking of ceramics. The atmospheric firing of ceramics leaves a trace of its time in the kiln, the repair is just another page in the history of the work. Art is often made in a way the reveals the process of making. With tea ware in Japan there is recognition that who has drunk tea from a bowl, how it is stored, and in what manner it is handled becomes a part of the work. So does the wear and repair. Raku, a firing technique, and shino, a type of glaze both leave a surface with a fine network of cracks. This allows tea to stain the cracks and sometimes the clay body, overtime changing the appearance and making it appear worn before there really is any wear. 
  While most of the Japanese aesthetics surrounding tea ware stresses a quiet understated natural feel, Kintsugi seems almost diametrically opposed to this. . The contrast creates a sense of importance of the issues surrounding the repair .The gold, bright, valuable, associated with the aristocracy, seems wildly antithetical to the humble nature works that are repaired. On its visual soapbox, kitsugi loudly speaks, “I am a repair” . It is an unassailable statement affirming use and wear as an aspect of an object and aesthetics. If you don’t understand this, the gold slaps you in the face with the message.
  
  
  (Look up boro repair and shashiko Japanese clothing repair)
  
  But all of these repair techniques, and their associated intent are in some ways the same. Each tells a story, each leaves an impression of intent, or lack of it. Each expresses an attitude on the topic of mutual arising. Each tells of human nature. The difference is in the way we perceive and the way we appreciate them, and in our understanding of the intent of the person who repaired it. The difference, for the most part resides in the viewer. It is the viewer that appreciates, the creates the great value of the repair.
  
  Non Repair repair
  This is repair after intentionally breaking an object, or making an object specifically to look as if it is repaired. Goro Suzuki, whose work is purposefully broken is the master of the Non Repair repair. He intentionally breaks pieces to repair them, and really builds his work with kintsugi type repair techniques. For him it does not  need to be broken to repair it. Its like he is saying, “If its not broken fix it anyways.” I am not sure that there is anything as conspicuous as this kind of “repair”. The fact that it is not broken screams for its own category . The  function of the Non Repair repair is often to teach appreciation of repair.
  
  The place where repair has become more a part of the aesthetic culture than elsewhere is Japan. But modern Japan is quite a throw away society. Houses get too old, cars get too old, clothes have to look new and respectable, hair is always highly tamed.  But in this atmosphere kintsugi and the boro technique and  shashiko clothing repair seem a response to this, a cultural self criticism. Not being Japanese it is hard to know. 
  
  The appreciation of the worn, the repaired, the aged, the imperfect, while it seems far from modern Japanese day to day life, is part of the cultural aesthetic. But it also appears elsewhere. New blue jeans in the US can almost be embarassing in youth culture. This is so true that new jeans are often bleached, stone washed and intentionally distressed in other ways before being sold. Some of the coolest “hippy” clothing were blue jean skirts sewn out of multiple pairs of worn out blue jean pants. 
  
  I often think of a bunch of poles or nodes pulling at the creation of worn jeans.
• The Pragmatism Node and being a cheapskate. This is also tied to just being poor and not being able to afford or wanting to afford new cloths. Likely need and want could be separated out into separate nodes. There is overlap here with other nodes.
• Appreciation of the look, the Wabi connoisseur.
• Marketability, the Stone Washed Node
• concern for the environmental impact of cotton and consumerism, the Green Node
• the Clueless Node. This is the node of people for whom the buying of new clothes is just a distraction from the rest of their lives, they don’t notice. 

These nodes are just like little elastic straps that pull on how we deal with our jeans or other objects. My old denim-type clothing is clearly elastically attached to each of these nodes. 

Certainly I am not the first in my interest in such things. But the earliest serious interest, and just about the only significant historical cultural manifestation that I know about was the period surround what Louise Cort calls “The Teabowl Wars” and the moves in Japan from the aesthetic of  glitzy teaware to wabi and move from connoisseurship of folk pottery to the purposefully making of wabi imbued wares. 

Relation to teaware’s shift from being curated from folk pots to purposefully made to be “funky”