Doe and Hope

Description

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.