| 1. A quality c. 1860 antique brass tourniquet marked: [Josef] LEITER / WIEN. The tourniquet is more complicated than the typical spiral tourniquet in that it has two guide posts that keep the bottom and top webbing rollers in line and not able to twist side-to-side. |
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| 2. A magnificent set of c. 1820-40 Old Paris porcelain portrait antique apothecary jars. The jar to the left has the profile bust of Hippokrates (Hippocrates) and that on the right shows Galen, both physicians from the Ancient World. The heads are represented as carved marble busts. These antique pharmacy vases a devanture are monumental and stand 28" high. The side handles are highly modeled ram's heads and the lid finials are pinecones. A scarce and monumental set of antique pharmacy show jars. | 
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| 3. A very rare set of c. 1790s antique Perkins tractors with original case. Each galvanic metallic tractor is marked: PERKINS / PATENT / TRACTORS. Elisha Perkins (1741-1799), of Plainfield, Connecticut, received the first medical patent issued under the Constitution of the United States, in 1796, for this device. The Perkins' tractors were medical quackery, of course, but Perkinism promised electrotherapeutic cures for pains in the head, face, teeth, breast, side, stomach, back, rheumatism and some gouts. The son of Elisha Perkins, Benjamin Douglas Perkins (1774-1810), was the great promoter of the tractors, most notably in England. He also opened the market to the veterinary trade by authoring a pamphlet, The Family Remedy; or, Perkins's Patent Metallic Tractors, For the Relief of Topical Disease of the Human Body: And of Horses, 1800. For a decade the use of tractors was a rage...even George Washington is said to have bought a set. James Gillray, the English social critic and cartoonist, famously spoofed the use of the Perkins' invention, in 1801, which he labeled the Rod of Aesculapios [sic] (the Greek and Roman god of medicine, Aeskulapios or Aesculapius). For a history of the Perkins' metallic tractors, please click here and here. Also, see Bennion, pp. 167-168. |
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| 4. A pair of Civil War cartes-de-visite of District Indian Territory Confederate surgeons, both with tinted emerald green sashes. The top CDV is of Lee M. Alexander, Surgeon, C.S.A.., and the Medical Director of the District of the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The lower image is thought to be that of Walter Thompson Adair (b. 1834), surgeon to the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles. Dr. Adair came from an illustrious family and was part Cherokee. (His brother was William Penn Adair, a delegate from the Cherokee Nation to the Conference of Congress.) Note the ivory-handled surgical set on the table. (An example of the Parker amputation saw shown in the surgical set is illustrated here.) The surgeon is holding an amputation knife. These images are thought to be the finest CDVs of Confederate surgeons. |
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| 5. A refined and superb late 19th century antique Chinese doctor's lady carved from a single piece of elephant ivory. According to the Wellcome Medical Museum, an ivory doctor’s lady was taken by a servant to the doctor as an aid in diagnosing an illness of the mistress. Other sources indicate that doctors, themselves, would bring such a medical doll when making a house call. During the Ch’ing Dynasty (1644-1912), a doctor could not directly examine a female patient. Similar doctor's dolls are on display in the Wellcome. This medical diagnostic figure is of a significantly higher quality than the examples typically seen for sale. 7.5 inches long. |
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| 6. An exquisite and magnificent set of solid silver antique phrenology calipers made by IR (James Redpath or John Robb) and hallmarked three times for Edinburgh, 1825. The case, also in silver and hallmarked, is engraved on the lid: To / GEORGE COMBE, Esqr. / FROM / Ladies who attended his Lectures / On / PHRENOLOGY, / IN / 1825 & 1826. The arc is further engraved: To George Combe Esqr. Ladies who attended his Classes of 1825 & 1826. The instrument is assembled from four pieces. Note the decorated ball finial on one caliper tip for placing within the ear to serve as a standard point of measurement. For a biography of the phrenologist George Combe (1788-1858), please see this link. A nearly identical instrument is pictured in Combe's book, Elements of Phrenology, 1824. This may have been the silversmith's model. Combe remarks that such a set can be made so that it comes-apart for fitting into a small pocket case. This dealer is aware of only two other silver phrenology calipers: all were made by Edinburgh silversmiths...one is hallmarked for 1833 and the other for 1852. The important example offered here is both the earliest and the finest, and it remained within the Combe family until August 2006. SOLD |
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7. A rare c. 1800 circular amputation set by Still, Edinburgh. The set contains eight instruments (two saws, four knives, tissue forceps, and a tourniquet), six having smooth ebony handles. In addition, fitting loose, are two period silver catheters and a steel aneurysm (?) needle. A small pair of bone forceps is missing. The case is sound, noting some loss of veneer around the edge of the lid. The green wool baize lining is in fine condition. Many late eighteenth and early nineteenth century American medical students studied in Edinburgh, one of the great medical centers of the period, and this set is exemplary of the type that would have been brought back to the U.S. by such a student. Alexander Still was a surgical instrument maker who was active from the 1790s to the 1830s. See Bennion, p. 334.
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| 8. A fine c. 1850 antique embalming set by Favre, Paris. The set is complete and includes three pumps, two handles for the largest pump, 8 nozzles, four valves, a trocar, a straight razor, and a pair of scissors. Several valves are marked FAVRE A PARIS, and the lock keeper is hand-engraved: Favre 1. Rue de l'Ecole de Medicine. The handsome mahogany case has brass fixtures and a red wool interior. Civil War period embalming sets are rare. |
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