Head, Face and Body Bandages, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XXVII, circa 1772

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, showing fourteen numbered figures of bandages and dressings, not only for the head. Fig. 1 is a ruffled cylinder bound with cord, with two pear shaped bulbs on long stems. Fig. 2 is a long curved band ending in a scroll. Fig. 3 is a head in profile wrapped with a bandage, and Fig. 4, Fig. 5 and Fig. 7 are heads seen from the front with bandages over one eye, over both eyes, and around the jaw and crown. Fig. 6 is a flat bandage cut with openings for the eyes, nose and mouth. Fig. 8 is a bust with a band around the head whose tails run down to a band around the chest. Fig. 10 and Fig. 12 are lower male torsos with a bandage tied at the groin. Fig. 9, Fig. 11, Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 are T shaped and split bandages drawn flat, their tails rolled.

The plate number "Pl. XXVII." is lettered at the top right outside the border, the section title "Chirurgie." below the border, and the page number "90." at the lower left. It is signed at the lower right with the conjoined AB monogram followed by "s.", the mark the Venetian engraver Antonio Baratti used on the Livorno plates (his full signature, "Antonio Baratti s.", is lettered on Pl. XII of this section).

This sheet comes from the Recueil de planches of the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, in the Livorno edition published by Giuseppe Aubert, whose plate volumes appeared between 1771 and 1778. The Chirurgie plates set out instruments, bandages and apparatus, keyed to an explanation in the text volume.

Framed with a generous mat, the plate suits a study, a library or a medical practice.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.