A pottery scourer

西漢    陶搓

The scourer is of elongated round-ended bar shape. The top, bottom and sides are all incised with patterns of interlocking triangles filled with punctuated and cross-hatched decoration. 

This intriguing object would have been used in a bath house to scrub the skin clean. The first scourers were made of rough stone, like pumice, but a number of pottery examples are known, in various shapes, mostly disc-like or bar-like as here, but also resembling stylized animals like toads or ducks. The pottery examples, being hollow, all have air-holes to prevent problems in firing, and the small piece of clay punched through to the interior in this process remains loose inside. For this reason they are sometimes misinterpreted as rattles. 

Dimensions: Length: 20.6 cm, 8 ⅛ inches

Date: Western Han dynasty (206 BC- AD 9)

Stock No. 461

Price: On Request