The beard dish, a bowl-shaped male toiletry item with an indentation at the bottom. This, known as the chin strap, was used to catch moss and beard hair. Beard dishes are generally made of silver, copper, porcelain or earthenware. As it is impossible to shave oneself while holding the dish, it was used by barbers in the 18th and 19th centuries. They could also be used as bleeding dishes, as barbers were often also surgeons. As for the hollow on the side of the dish, there are two possibilities: either it was used to hold the dish with the thumb, or it was used to hold the boxwood ball placed in the mouth to tighten the skin during shaving.
Another practice with the same purpose, shaving with a spoon, was to place a spoon in the customer’s mouth, with the curved side towards the cheek. The third alternative was the barber’s thumb. One of the first questions asked by the barber was ‘thumb or spoon’. The price charged was, of course, different. Another cavity on the marli (the inner edge, often decorated, of a porcelain or earthenware plate or dish) was used to lather the soap. Fitted with a ring fixed to one edge or with holes, it could be hung on a wall or in a piece of furniture, called a barbière.
The dish was held under the chin by the customer or a barber’s apprentice – salons took on a new apprentice every year. The barber wiped the blade on the rim of the dish. Later, barbers used a cloth placed on their forearm. This was quickly adopted in large salons, but for village barbers, this practice would have been too costly compared with the price of a shave.
 These dishes were decorated with the same motifs found on other earthenware pieces: flowers, birds, houses, animals, landscapes. Some models also bore the name or initials of their owner (patronymic dishes), to which were sometimes added the attributes of their trade. They also featured proverbial or humorous phrases, adages or legends. During the revolutionary period, one could find decorations such as a rooster perched on a fence, or on a cannon barrel, or even with inscriptions full of innuendo such as: ‘Ici, on rase gratis’ (‘Here, we shave for free’).
In the 20th century, the dish was replaced by a towel, which the barber would place around his customer’s neck and tuck into the shirt collar. These dishes are now sought-after by collectors.