French Country · Encyclopedia · Faience
Barber's bowl
A fine eighteenth-century faience bowl from the Auxerre region, with a notch in the rim that fitted against the neck. It hung on the barber's wall in villages; in middle-class houses the master kept his own, sometimes marked with his name.
French: plat à barbe · Auxerre region · 18th century
At a glance
- Region: Auxerre
- Period: eighteenth century
- Material: faience
- Feature: a semicircular notch for the neck
What it is
A deep oval or round dish with a semicircular cut in its rim. During a shave, the barber held it under the customer's chin, the notch against the neck, to catch lather and water.
Barbers and households
In villages the bowl hung on the wall of the barber's shop. In middle-class homes, the master of the house had his own, sometimes painted with his name, which makes such pieces personal as well as decorative.
Collecting and displaying it
Check the rim and the notch for chips and restoration. Painted names and dates add interest.
Hung on a bathroom or dressing room wall, a barber's bowl is a fitting and elegant decoration.
Source: Les Trésors de France: vieux métiers et objets d'autrefois (Éditions Rustica, Détours en France collection, 1995), pp. 136–137, with general background on the object. The book was published in 1995, so workshops, people and figures are described as they were then. Regional names and dates are given as the book records them; a style or a region of origin does not by itself date an individual piece.