A Rare Victorian Silver Plated Bone Surgeons Medical Hammer / Mallet Stamped "Mayer & Phelps, London"
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Origin: English
Period: Victorian
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1870
Length: 6.5 inches
Width: 2.5 inches (head)
Head Face Diameter: 1.75 inches
Having a grip groove handle, the silver plated hammer with weighted head and clearly marked neck stamp; MAYER & PHELPS LONDON. A wonderfully tactile piece of medical history, the condition is sound, with marks and patination consummate with age.
This instrument would have been most likely used to evaluate the density and strength of bones and also the tooling of the bone when paired with a cutting instrument. Whilst the work this piece would have seen could have been on the macabre side, it is a remarkably aesthetically pleasing item with its symmetrical looped handle.
Mayer and Phelps, were specialist surgical instrument makers most famous for ear nose and throat instruments since 1863 with offices in Surrey, London W1 and later in Toronto, Canada. The company was eventually bought out in 1946 by Downs Surgical.