If you look at the history of barbers, you will find that they were similar to doctors in the early years. Known as barber-surgeons, they performed a multitude of tasks, including bloodletting, pulling teeth, setting bones, and treating wounds. This bowl was used for a few purposes, namely bloodletting and pulling teeth. The notch is made to contact the neck, so the bowl would easily hold any blood or fluids that occurred during surgery. The outer lip of the bowl is scalloped with a repetitive decoration. Inside the bowl are three flowers with green trim. You can see some imperfections in the bowl that occurred during production. Underneath are some minor imperfections with two small holes in the base where a string was used to display the bowl. 2012-YP