www.925-1000.com

Pepper, sugar or pounce pot?
This issue is still a mystery to me; if they come in table sets and cruets they are obviously meant for pepper or sugar, or if in matching writing desk sets, one can tell it’s pounce sander. But, as an individual item, how can I tell? They are too often vaguely described as ``Silver pepper pot (or possibly a pounce pot - sugar shaker) ``. Blotting paper has been available since Tudor times, but pounce or sand continued to be used throughout the 19th century because it was cheaper. The size of pierced holes does not help much, I suppose. The only reliable comparison is with porcelain pounce pots; the lid is mostly concave to let extra pounce back to the pot after sanding. But it does not help much with silver, does it?

One of my pet peeves is the number of single mid 20th century sterling salt or pepper shakers offered up as either muffineers or pounce pots...

Blotting sand and pounce are not the same thing, but most, though not all, of the sanders or pounce pots (suspect that they were probably used for whichever substance the user chose) that I've seen in silver and pewter inkstands were low and wide, in the same proportions as the inkwell, and the majority did have a concave top. Sugar casters or muffineers, which often held cinnamon or a mix of sugar and cinnamon (a constant in our household) strike me as more difficult, they should be larger than the pepper shakers, but as you mention, if they're not in a set, how do you tell? Personally, usually perceive them as largish pieces with tall fancily pierced tops.

I used to manage an art & drafting supply, where pounce/drafting powder was stocked, it was/is used to prepare vellum and parchment for ink, we also carried small jars of gum sandarac, preferred by the calligraphers. Pounce is whitish and sandarac yellowish, but most blotting/writing sand I've seen has been either black or red, though I do seem to recall seeing some in an old sander that was grayish tinted with leftover blue ink.

~Cheryl

I would start with size. pepper pots are typically smaller with top in proportion to the body with small often uniform holes making a pattern (small to prevent larger pieces of pepper from over-spicing the food or breaking a tooth). Typically a sugar caster is larger and hast the taller top as Cheryl described often with a more ornamental piercings as the sugar way typically cast over a larger area.