SET Early 18c Barber Surgeon Basin Japanese Porcelain

Out of stock

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Condition Report: Overall Condition A & B; no. 1: only small rimfritspots. 1. no 2: 2 or 3 fritspots at rim and small hairline (15mm) Size; 275mm diameter

Important Pair of Imari Nobility Barber Surgeon BASIN FOR SHAVING BLEEDING & much more. This pair is of museum quality.
Chinese export porcelain, Imari, Kangxi (1700-1710),
with a very rich flower decoration with a peacock. A similar Barber Basin can be found in the Topkapi Saray museum in Istanbul!

A barber in the 16th -19th century is not what we now call a barber but much more.

Barbers in the modern period are known to do mainly one thing: cut
hair. For much of the last hundred and fifty years, their red and white
striped barber poles signified their ability to produce a good clean
shave and a quick trim. This was not always the case, however.

Up until the 19th century barbers were generally referred to as
barber-surgeons, and they were called upon to perform a wide variety of
tasks. They treated and extracted teeth, branded slaves, created ritual
tattoos or scars, cut out gallstones and hangnails, set fractures, gave
enemas, and lanced abscesses. Whereas physicians of their age examined
urine or studied the stars to determine a patient’s diagnosis,
barber-surgeons experienced their patients up close and personal. Many
patients would go to their local barber for semi-annual bloodletting,
much like you take your car in for a periodic oil change.