Description:Smoothing tool made from earthenware.
This hand made pottery-making tool has a raised handle and was made from a ceramic plate.
Roughly 16cm in length.
It was used to smooth the back of a dish as it rotated on a whirler.
The dish would still have been on its mould as it was smoothed. The clay would still have been soft.
The tool has the maker and user's name, place and date inscribed on it.
Henry Watkin, Newcastle, March 1869
Taken from the Gladstone Pottery Museum Tools Collection.
This object is now part of the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.