Description:
Nickle-plated steel bleeding bowl with a rolled edge rim; an attached solid, shaped handle; and the interior sides encircled with 6 inscribed lines and stamped from the top to the bottom in two areas, "1 / 6 / 8" on the top line, third and fifth lines, and "20 / 12 / 1" on the second, fourth and sixth lines. The bowl is stamped on interior center, "DOWN BROS / BOROUGH LONDON." Manufacturers of surgical instruments, appliances and equipment in London since 1863, Down Bros. was located at different addresses on St. Thomas Street, opposite Guy’s Hospital. In 1892 they were at numbers 5 & 7; by 1899 they gave their address as 21 with a manufactory at Kings Head Yard, Borough High St, SE.; and later also added number 23 to their address. Bowls to catch the blood from a vein were beginning to come into fashion in the 14th century, shaped from clay or thin brass and later made of pewter or handsomely decorated pottery. Some pewter bowls, such as this example, were graduated from 2 to 20 ounces by a series of lines incised around the inside to indicate the number of ounces of fluid when filled to that level. Barber's bowls have also been associated with bloodletting, but there is controversy about how frequently they were used to collect blood. People serving as Barber-Surgeons had a long tradition of bloodletting, and it is likely that they would have used their basins for collection purposes, as well as to shave their customers. Michael Archer in "Delftware" notes that Barber-Surgeons could let blood if required, and this function is reflected in their red and white barbers' poles where the pole represented the stick gripped by the patient's hand to promote bleeding from his arm. The white stripe on the pole corresponded to the tourniquet applied above the vein to be opened in the arm or leg; red or blue stripes appeared on early barber poles, but later poles contained both colors. However, the barbers' dual role was already seen as out of date by the mid 1700s in England; R. Campbell's "The London Tradesman", published in 1747, reads: "I observed in the Chapter upon Surgery, that the Barbers and Surgeons were one Corporation. While they remained in that Situation they had some small Pretence to the Practice of Surgery but now they are separated, and become plain Barbers, I believe that ridiculous and dangerous Part of their Trade will be laid aside." Elisabeth Bennion shows two examples of similar pewter bowls, noting that some scholars believe that "any receptacle might have been called into use on such occasions" but that the "exception to prove the rule" are the pewter examples marked in ounces. "Venesection" or "Phelebotomy" or bleeding was normally done at the elbow bend, although sites were used all over the body. The quantity of blood let varied depending on the physician's judgement, and was often repeated although in smaller quantities. Bloodletting was particularly fashionable from the 18th into the early 19th century, declining in use after 1830.
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