Screw Tourniquet, Syringe and Pipes, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XXXI, circa 1772

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, with eleven numbered figures. Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 are panels showing small rolls and rods tied in place with bows. Fig. 3 is a screw tourniquet: a broad band, pierced with a row of holes at one end, carries a plate with a threaded screw and a winged handle; the screw passes through the band to a round pad on its inner side. Fig. 4 is a large syringe, a ringed barrel with a plunger knob below and a pyramid shaped head on a turned stem above. Fig. 5 is a funnel on a tube, Fig. 6 a straight pipe and Fig. 7 a curved pipe with a pierced tip, and Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 are longer pipes ending in perforated, rose like heads. Fig. 10 shows a leg with a long incision below the knee, held between folded compresses. Fig. 11 is a striped band.

The plate number "Pl. XXXI." is lettered at the top right outside the border, the section title "Chirurgie." below the border, and the page number "94." 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.

The clear line work and open layout read well on a wall, alone or hung with other plates from the same section.

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