Description:
Brass bleeding bowl with a cut-out (2 1/2" x 1") in the rolled-edge rim; a small ring attached to the underside of the rim near the cut-out; flared sides; and a rounded base. Stamped oval mark in center of bowl appears to be a fleur de lis. 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 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 However, this dual role was already seen as out of date by the mid 1700s in England; R. Campbell's "The London Tradesman", published in 1747, reads: "I observed in the Chapter upon Surgery, that the Barbers and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." "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. It is probable that these smaller bowls with their reenforced rims and cut-outs sized to fit around an arm were used to catch small amounts of blood from a patient's arm. Bloodletting was particularly fashionable from the 18th into the early 19th century, declining in use after 1830.
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