Alex Peck Antique Scientifica

Below is a listing of a few medical and scientific antiques that are currently for sale. Please feel free to send an e-mail for additional details and to place an order.

50. An exceptionally fine 1860s Snowden & Brother, Philadelphia, ivory-handled exhibition surgical set. Note the iconography of the capital saw grip: the dexter side reveals a standing Venus, while the sinister is carved with a sea monster. The opposing imagery may be a reference to the conflict between the Union and the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The German silver lid cartouche incorporates a superb patriotic eagle and is engraved : I. E. Cohn / Surgeon. This is considered to be the best quality American antique surgical set known to exist, and it may have been made for the 1864 Sanitary Fair held in Philadelphia. Snowden & Brother was in business from 1858 to 1872, as listed in Edmonson, p. 264. SOLD
51. A fine Civil War date U.S.A. Medical Staff sword Model 1840 made by Henry Folsom, St. Louis , Missouri , and so marked at the ricasso. Folsom was in business under this name from only 1859 to 1864. The brass hilt and scabbard retain 90% of their original gilt finish. The blade is in superb bright condition, and the etching is sharp and frosty. Besides the legend Medical Staff, the blade is marked with Masonic emblems and other decorative flourishes. By documented family history, the sword belonged Dr. John Cockayne Copesake (1837-1917), of West Jersey, Illinois, who entered service in October of 1864 with the 114th Illinois Infantry and served until August of 1865, seeing action at the Battle of Nashville and on into Mississippi. A Civil War tinplate image of Assistant Surgeon Copesake accompanies the medical sword.
52. A c. 1880 antique ear trumpet made of tin with a black and gold tone finish. The body of the ear horn is a series of soldered doughnut-shaped segments. The bulbous segments were designed to further amplify sound. This type of antique hearing device is identified as a Corrugated Ear Trumpet in the George Tiemann 1889 catalogue, p. 189, fig. 2034.
53. A c. 1900 penis cupping apparatus made of glass and metal. A vacuum is created in the glass tube by turning a crank. The instrument is listed in medical catalogues of the time as a penis congestor and as a penis enhancer. Tiemann 1889, p. 817, lists a penis congestor, but was, perhaps, too discrete to illustrate it. This is one of the more unusual urological antiques.
54. A c. 1800 antique obstetrical fetal destruction crotchet with pistol grip ebony handle.
55. An American Civil War date Collidge U.S. Army field surgeon's companion put-up by George T. Brown, Apothecaries, Boston. The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion gives a description and illustration of this Collidge field companion, which was introduced in early 1863 and designed by Medical Inspector R.H. Collidge, U.S. Army. Of special note is the chloroform tin which has a label bearing the arms of the U.S. Army Medical Department and which is dated 1863. SOLD
56. An Auzoux anatomical model of the larynx in three parts. Louis Thomas Jerôme Auzoux (1797-1880), a French anatomist and physician, saw the need for highly accurate anatomical models, as an alternative to cadaver study, and founded, in the 1820s, a company to make them. Due to the great care and attention to detail that went into their manufacture, hand-painted antique Auzoux papier-mâché models are prized. This écorché is life-size.
57. A c. 1860 antique bloodletting scarificator marked: McNAMEE. // RICHD, VA. Robert McNamee was a surgical and dental instrument maker active in Richmond, Virginia, from c. 1850 to the mid-1860s. Only one other antebellum Richmond instrument maker, Samuel Sutherland (fl. 1845-1855), is recorded. No McNamee instruments are illustrated in Edmonson and this is the only example known to this dealer. See Edmonson, p. 268 and p. 293.