A North German display mortar made by Johann Otto Kröger
Golden brown cast bronze with dark brown patina, engravings. Bell-shaped mortar on a thick moulded base with a protruding flared rim. Decorated above the base with a band of delicate arabesques, the display side inscribed with the name of the patron and a motto in Latin capital letters between bands of moulding: "EILARD OLTMANS WIL MICH GOT ERNEHREN SO KANES MICH NIEMAND WEHREN". Inscribed below the rim with the name of the caster and the date: "M IOHAN OTTO KROGER HAT MICH ZV OLDEN BVRCH GEGOSEN ANNO 1684". The handles formed as mermaids. The rim slightly abraded in places and with dents and minor wear. H 33.2, D 36.5 cm, weight c. 64.4 kg.
Oldenburg, Johann Otto Kröger, 1684.
Johann Otto Kröger (also written Kroger) was highly active as a coppersmith and bell caster in Oldenburg and the surrounding area from 1670 to 1690 and also served the town as an artillerist. His bells can be found today in the parish of Cappeln in Lower Saxony and Blankenburg Abbey near Oldenburg. The bells which he cast for the churches of Schönemoor and Dedesdorf were later amended and only the inscriptions remain (see Rauchheld, Glockenkunde Oldenburgs, in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch des Vereins für Altertumskunde und Landesgeschichte, Oldenburg 1925, vol. 48, p. 119/120). Mortars by Kröger are extremely rare.
Literature
For more on this caster see Rauchheld, Glockenkunde Oldenburgs, in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch des Vereins für Altertumskunde und Landesgeschichte, Oldenburg 1925, vol. 48, p. 118. ff.