Pounce pot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pounce pots provided a means of drying ink once it had been written on a page. They were small containers with perforated tops (like pepper pots) that contained a powdery material that was sprinkled on the just written text to dry any excess moisture.
The present equivalent (and much less messy) is blotting paper.
Pounce was also used to provide a better writing surface on the paper which was more absorbant than modern paper. Some pots had concave tops so that surplus pounce could be returned.