Spring Blade Instruments, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XXXV, circa 1772

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, with two numbered figures, lettered in lower case as fig. 1 and fig. 2, and their parts marked with the reference letters a to d. Fig. 1 shows a turned and fluted handle carrying a single long curved spring blade, a, and beside it a second handle whose two spring blades bow outward around a central rod, b, so that they spread into a bulb. Around them are drawn the parts: a flanged tube, small slotted fittings, a screw, a pierced collar, d, and two rings with knobs, c. Fig. 2 is a forceps with long looped blades, a lock pierced with screw holes, and handles that end in outward turned hooks, drawn with a small turned pin and a short bar.

The plate number "Pl. XXXV." is lettered at the top right outside the border, the section title "Chirurgie." below the border, and the page number "98." 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.

It pairs naturally with other Chirurgie plates for a coordinated group in a study or consulting room.

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