Description:
English creamware oval shaving bowl with deep, plain well; a cut-out along the base of the bowl for a person's neck; and a molded shell-edged rim with two small holes at the left-hand side to enable to bowl to be hung up on a wall, suspended on a cord threaded through these holes. The underside of base is impressed, "LEEDS POTTERY" and "20." Supposedly this mark was discontinued after 1827. The surface of the ceramic has a pearlescent luster. Ceramic shaving bowls display a fairly consistent form: usually an oval or circular shape with a deep bowl and wide rim, often with a round depression for a soap ball, and a curved indentation for a man's throat. Two holes often pierce the footrim to facilitate hanging with a string or wire, or tying around a client’s neck. A ball of soap would be placed into the depression on the rim, and the barber would mix soap and water into a lather while the customer held the basin to his throat. Barber's bowls have also been associated with bloodletting, but there has been controversy about how frequently they were used to collect blood. 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. However, this dual role was already seen as out of date by the mid 1700s in England; R. Campbell's "The London Tradesman", published in 1747, reads: "I observed in the Chapter upon Surgery, that the Barbers and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."
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2006.33.60 |
