Art in Artifacts: Mortar and Pestle from the Rose Brafe Green Family

“The hand hammered brass mortar and pestle given … Dec. 1967 by Aunt Mary Green- who inherited it from her Mother Rose Brafe Green Jan. 1935.”

Written by Aunt Mary Green about the Brafe-Green Family Mortar & Pestle.

Transcription: “Rose Brafe Green’s Mother Sarah Brafe who owned it for many years brot [sic] it to the United States in Mar. 1888- We do not Know if she inherited it or purchased it before coming here to live- but its origin we believe was Kovna (Kaunas) a state in Russia near the German border.”

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) The family name has also been spelled “Braef” or “Brave.”

2) Family oral and written history.

3) Kovna/ Kovno was the Yiddish form of Kaunas, which is in Lithuania. The Russians controlled the country at the time the Brafe-Green family immigrated to the US.

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