Westonbirt, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL6 8QG
Friday 14th - Sunday 16th August 2009
SPECIAL INVITATION - Complimentary Tickets - Click Here.
A fascinating display of rare scientific and medical collectables will be a major attraction at The Westonbirt School Antiques & Fine Art Fair, at Westonbirt, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, from 14th - 16th August 2009. Open to the public for three days, from Friday to Sunday, this popular annual event features leading art and antique dealers from across Britain.
The selection of instruments belongs to antiques dealer Fred Nickson of Chiltern Antiques from Henley-on-Thames, a specialist collector of the unusual and bizarre. Among Fred's display will be a doctor's portable leather homeopathic medicine case, complete with 48 bottles of various pills, dating from circa 1920. Such a case would have been carried by doctors attending patients and administered directly after a diagnosis, long before patients were expected to queue at the local chemist. It is priced at £285.
Fred will also be showing a late Victorian brass and copper auto clave (dental press), complete with dental plates, used to take impressions of the patient's mouth and teeth in order for dentures to be made to size. Other exhibits include various dental implements for extractions, teeth scrapers, early blood pressure monitors, optical instruments, scalpels and bone saws.
Medical instruments are one of the most misunderstood and least appreciated fields of collecting. The vast majority of old surgical instruments found today can be traced back to the time of the Napoleonic Wars from 1792-1815, when on-the-spot surgery and medical assistance began to become standard practice for injured soldiers. Knives, tourniquets, saws, forceps, gunshot probes, scalpels, ligature silks, and needles were common items in the medical boxes of surgeons and doctors. Most instruments were made from metal, usually with crosshatched ebony handles to provide a firmer grip. Others have mother-of-pearl or gold-trimmed handles for durability and also to show their value in the hands of an accomplished and wealthier doctor. The more impressive the instrument, the better the surgeon - you hoped! Around 1867, antiseptics were introduced and instruments were generally made entirely in metal for the purposes of hygiene.
Also showing at this popular annual event will be dealers offering all kinds of collector's items, art and antiques. They include newcomer Tom Johnson from The Collectors Gallery from Broadway, the grandson of well known gallery owner John Noott, Candice Horley from Surrey, specializing in 19th and early 20th century porcelain figures and French decorative boudoir prints; Brian Ashbee from Bristol promises period furniture, objets d'art and fine paintings, Brian Chew from Dorset with early English oak and country furniture, Melody Antiques from Cheshire with Georgian and Victorian period furniture, Parkstile Antiques from Surrey with silver, Roger de Ville from Staffordshire specializing in English pottery, The Period Face with English portrait paintings and Scarab Antiques from London, specializing in 19th and 20th century jewellery, enamels and 20th century glass and ceramics.
The Westonbirt School Antiques & Fine Art Fair is a must for collectors and anyone looking for a special piece of antique furniture or painting to adorn their homes. 'We've got something for everyone,' says organiser Sue Ede of Cooper Antiques Fairs from Somerset. 'With prices from less than £30 to more than £10,000, we cater for connoisseurs, collectors and first-time buyers.'
DIARY DETAILS
The Westonbirt School Antiques & Fine Art Fair
Westonbirt, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL6 8QG
Friday 14th - Sunday 16th August 2009
11am - 5pm daily.
Admission: £5.00.
SPECIAL INVITATION - Complimentary Tickets - Click Here.
Westonbirt School, home of Westonbirt Antiques & Fine Art Fair
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