The few sherds of decorated French faience represent tableware and possibly a barber’s dish used at Fort St. Louis. The colorful blue and gold polychrome fragments shown at left are faience ware, typical of the Nevers region of France. Ceramic analyst Maureen Brown has suggested that several of the sherds may be from a barber or surgeon’s dish used in bloodletting, a common procedure thought to promote health. Such dishes were shaped with a raised rim and opening through which blood from a cut on the patient could be channeled and captured. The polychrome sherd at right bears the letters "LOU," and the decoration appears to be French. The remainder of the faience sherds from Fort St. Louis are undecorated (faience blanche; (see example of apothecary jar). Faience is a tin-enameled earthenware that was popular in France in the 17th and 18th centuries. TARL Collections.