1960s Brass Tuareg Berber shops Sugar Hammer

This ornate brass object is a handcrafted Moroccan sugar hammer. It is used for breaking a large cone-shaped sugar "loaf" into small pieces. Rock-hard sugar loaves are popular in Morocco and North Africa, where tea drinkers love pure sugar for sweetening their mint tea. Sugar hammers have gone out of fashion in America and Europe but remain a useful, elegant utensil in Moroccan tea culture. Use as a decorative table top accent or unique and decorative paper weight.

Now almost unique to Morocco and North Africa, sugar loaves were once the only way sugar was sold. To make the loaves, harvested stalks are crushed to release their sap. The sap is boiled and then poured into cone-shaped clay or iron molds and left to dry for a few days. A small hole at the tip of the mold allows liquid and any impurities to drain out as the sugar inside crystallizes into a solid cone.

Moroccan metalwork tends to be highly decorative with repeating geometric patterns, as seen on the gently curved blade of this hammer and handle.

Measures approximately 8 3/4" long, 5 1/2" wide, shops 1 1/2" deep.