Description

A Dupuytren’s double-bladed lithotome with pearl indicator plate, of modification by Charrière. This instrument is described in the book Frédéric Charrière: Fabricant d’instruments de chirurgie by Jimmy Drulhon. 2008. It was photographed as ‘fig. 40. Lithotome double de Dupuytren, premier modèle construit par Fréderic Charrière’. The double lithotome was once part of Charrière’s personal early collections.

Charrière, who modified Mr. Heyne Jr.’s saw, placed himself at the forefront of his colleagues through the numerous improvements he made to surgical instruments and the inventive spirit he demonstrated in the creation of several of them in a personal museum. Among these instruments, a double lithotome intended for bilateral lithotomy was mentioned.

Lithotomes where used to cut the bladder in order to remove stones (hard mass in the bladder) – a practice known as lithotomy. Baron Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835), a French surgeon and pathologist, invented this double bladed lithotome for the bilateral lithotomy procedure he developed in 1812. This procedure became widely used from the 1850s onwards.

The instruments of Charrière’s personal collection where sold in two auctions in 1978 at Hôtel drouot. The catalogue of the first sale of instruments from the former museum of Frédéric Charrière, No. 79 describes a magnificent double lithotome by Dupuytren that the manufacturer engraved as follows in a cartouche adorned with two snakes coiled around a vase topped by two laurel crowns: “Charrière Opposite the Collège de France at the back of the courtyard St Jean de Latran no 24-35”. This signature in its emblematic frame would very rarely be reproduced on another instrument of this quality.

The Wellcome collection holds a similar instrument made by Grangeret à Paris.

Lenth: 26 cm.

Provenance:

Musée de Frédéric Charrière, 1833 – .. )

1978, Hôtel Drouot, catalogue made by Alain Brieux at request of Mr. Gentile (owner of Gentile instruments), double lithotrite by Dupuytren, No. 79, sold for 9000 francs.

2006, no. 43, Agora enchères M. Pierre Marie Rogeon, Instruments de chirurgie provenant des Ateliers, Charrière, Robert & collin puis Collin ‘Exceptionelle qualité de fabrication, probablement des ateliers Charrière’p. 14 du catalogue vente. 

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