Bushel or drawer

This peck measure or tray, used for measuring quantities of rye and preparing mortar mixes, dates from the late 19th century.

It comes from an Aragonese masía in the province of Teruel, specifically from the mountainous areas located between the towns of Cantavieja and Fortanete. A masía is an isolated country house dedicated to livestock farming. These buildings were constructed with materials available in their immediate surroundings. This piece comes from a masía whose owner is one of the last shepherds in the area, who has witnessed the passage of time and the passing of years.

One of the functions of this container was to act as a tray for preparing mortar, a mixture of lime, sand, and water used to bind and seal the joints between adobe bricks and stones used in constructions.

It is evident that the piece has seen intensive use, especially on its interior, where wear caused by the continuous striking of the trowel against the bottom can be observed.

Additional Information

The masoveros began to abandon the masías between 1955 and 1970 due to the lack of electrification in the rural area.

This piece is a survivor of the years. It comes from a masía whose owner is a 92-year-old man, a masovero and saddler from the area, one of the last who still dedicate themselves to maintaining the remaining masías. He restored it to preserve it and continue using it, employing materials he had at hand and joining the piece with screws from the current era. This represents the same virtue as the materials used in that era: it was made with what was available.

Furthermore, it should be noted that this area of the country did not enjoy the benefits of modernity at the same pace as other regions of Spain and still today lacks some of them. It was a forgotten area both during the dictatorship and in the current democracy, with unpaved roads and no access to running water or electricity. Practically nothing was done to prevent the people living in the masías from having to abandon their childhood homes, where they had lived generation after generation. All of this led the area to even remain stuck in time.

This allowed its inhabitants to create devices like this: an object that does not aim to be of the best possible quality, nor to be made with more refined craftsmanship, nor to be a mere decorative element. It is an object created to be used, to make people's lives easier. It represents the philosophy of the rural areas of the Iberian Peninsula and their way of utilizing everything around them, using a nearby white pine to manufacture a tool for a specific task.

Although it was not an item of great value in its time, due to it being an everyday object, the passage of years, continuous use, and the fact of having been created out of necessity and not whim, in a time when the profession of shepherding was in decline, have transferred its history and experiences to the soul of the wood. All of this makes it an authentic piece of history that hopes to continue living for many more years while continuing to fulfill a function.