Featured artifact: Pounce Box

 This item from the Benton County Historical Society's collection is not something you'd find in a home or office today.

Pounce Box, circa 1830

Even though the object has a number of holes in the top, it is not a salt or pepper shaker.  It is a shaker of a sort called a pounce box.  Pounce is the ground up resin of the sandarac tree (Tetraclinis articulata) of Morocco.  In the past, writers would sprinkle either pounce or sand over a newly inked document to keep the ink from running or smearing. This pounce box dates from the 1830s and was used by J. H. Lines in Iowa.  He brought it with him to Oregon in 1853.

close-up detail

Pounce boxes were also filled with charcoal dust or other colored powders to copy a design by shaking the box over a pattern created by perforations in paper. This can of pounce powder from circa 1914 has holes in the top so it can be used directly without the need to transfer the powder to a box. 

 

Once people rarely used dip pens or fountain pens, pounce boxes were no longer an essential object for writers.

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon