The Nature Trail is inaccessible due to pathworks by Lewisham Council. We apologise for the inconvenience.
Stone rotary quern for grinding black tea (or known as red tea, 'hong cha' in Chinese). It consists of two coarse stone discs with grooved radiating lines on the grinding surfaces, kept in position by a central wooden axle. The upper disc is mobile and moved in a rotary motion over the lower static disc through revolving a wooden handle by hand, which is now missing. A large hole on the upper disc is for filling in the tea leaves.
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
The database retains language taken from historical documents to help research. Please note that some records may feature language and reflect systems of thinking that are outdated and offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.
If you have any further information about objects in our collections, can suggest corrections to our information or if you see content requiring immediate action, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk
