An unmarked lined pewter bowl which would have been used to measure blood removed through venesection in France in the late 19th century.

The practice of bleeding patients as a panacea for a host of different ailments was common throughout Europe in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The bowls themselves were characteristically shaped with a single handle and concentric lines for measuring the amount of blood drawn. This piece with a simply formed handle and shallower basin was typical of the bowls used for phlebotomy by the French as opposed to the deeper, more narrow English examples.

• From the Phisick collection