Live Auction 14407Interiors
TWO LIGNUM VITAE POUNCE POTS, A MORTAR AND PESTLE
Lot 240

TWO LIGNUM VITAE POUNCE POTS, A MORTAR AND PESTLE

18TH AND 19TH CENTURY

Closed24 May 2017

Price Realised

GBP 4,375

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TWO LIGNUM VITAE POUNCE POTS, A MORTAR AND PESTLE
18TH AND 19TH CENTURY
Together with a George I fruitwood muffineer with bone finial, another fruitwood muffineer and sycamore example; a sycamore trencher, platter and mealybeg; a fruitwood bowl; a walnut spice box; two fruitwood thumbscrew nutcrackers, a fruitwood three pronged fork with carved dog's head and an apple corer; a horn and bone mounted bodkin case in the form of a boot
6 ½ in. (16.5 cm.) high, the tallest pounce pot

Christie's, London, Three Woods: The John Parry Collection, 25 March 2010, lot 6 (a pounce pot and muffineer)
Evan Thomas Collection, thence to W.J Collection (the platter)
El-Helou Collection, Christie's South Kensington, 19 May 1999, lot 782 (fruitwood bowl)
Christie's South Kensington, 30 June 1999, lot 971 (nutcracker)
Christie's South Kensington, 26 February 2003, lot 130 (nutcracker)
Christie's South Kensington, 21 February 2001, lot 160 (mortar and pestle)
David Levi, 2007 (George I fruitwood muffineer)

Specialist note

Pounce was originally a powder sprinkled onto parchment to aid its use as a suitable surface for writing. When paper replaced parchment, a circular pounce-pot with a dished saucer-shaped top was used, to assist retaining the valuable pounce-powder. This type of powder was known as sandarach. The powder was sprinkled onto the paper and resin rubbed in with fingers or a pad to prevent the ink spreading. At the end of the 18th century, when paper quality had improved so much that its preparation with pounce-powder was unneccessary, another problem arose : the ink stayed wet on the page, so another type of pounce-powder, usually powdered-chalk, was developed (E. H. Pinto, Treen and other wooden bygones, London, 1969, p. 261 & figs. 264 S & U).
A muffineer is a treen version of the silver sugar caster, used to sprinkle sugar or spices such as grated cinnamon over muffins.