A very good 19th century  pounce pot. The saucer shaped lid has some pierced holes for sprinkling the pounce on to the ink and for collecting any unused pounce.
An early 19th century fruitwood pounce pot with a circular dished lid pierced with holes of different sizes arranged in a star pattern. It has a baluster shaped body on a turned foot.
The pounce had two functions it was shaken onto some writing surfaces like parchment to make it smooth to write on and the other use was to dry ink prior to  the introduction of blotting paper c1840. After sprinkling the pounce onto the surface excess pounce was poured back into the antique treen  pots via the holes in the top, hence why the top is saucer shaped to retain the precious pounce.