Description:Smoothing tool made from earthenware.
This hand made pottery-making tool was used to smooth the back of a dish as it rotated on a whirler. It is roughly 15cm in length.
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 inscribed on it. It reads;
<div align="center">Henry J Kettle,
Burslem, Staffordshire,
made Saturday Feb 4 1882.
This is mine.</div>
Henry Kettle was a dishmaker who trained at Meakin's and went on to work at Kirkham's in Hanley.
It also has drawings of two trees and a triangle scribed on it.
Taken from the Gladstone Pottery Museum Tools Collection.
This object is now part of the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.