Obscuratorial Finds – Oddities in the Archives

by Alice Quine, Curatorial Assistant

With my last blog post focusing on the museum’s food related objects it seemed like a natural progression to move from goulash to ghouls. Some of the most interesting aspects of the collection are concerned with unusual historical practices which may now seem rather macabre.

Dastardly Doctors – While many of us grumble about the quality of health service today, in the 1700s an evening on the ward with a lukewarm dinner and EastEnders would have felt rather indulgent. Published in 1792, this aquatint image portrays a Covent Garden quack ‘Dr Bossy’ standing on a stage selling medicines with a harlequin beside him. The term quack doctor refers to someone without any formal training in medicine, who would have sold unregulated and often untested medicinal formulas at markets and fairs. This sort of practice was a common solution for those who could not afford to see a qualified doctor, and often had dire consequences.

‘Dr Bossy’ engraved by W. Birch

Scary Surgery – Even if you were wealthy enough to see a qualified doctor, the standard of surgical instruments used would have been enough to make you weep into your lemsip (or more accurately opiates and alcohol). This leather wallet dates from around 1860, and contains twelve instruments used by a feldsher, a health care professional who provided various medical services in Russia and other Eastern European countries. These tools were mainly used for extracting and capping teeth and for minor surgical procedures such as lancing abscesses, inserting stitches and leeching blood.

Feldsher’s Instruments

Fiendish Fashion – If you weren’t too busy lancing abscesses you might have been elsewhere partaking in equally morbid fashion statements. With the furrier trade playing a significant role in the history of Jews in the East End it is unsurprising that this fox has pawed its way into the collection. However the fact that it is made from two foxes joined together (with six legs and two tails) certainly stole my attention.

Fox Stole

Eerie Entertainment – Of course your fashion with a face would not be complete without having somewhere to wear it to. The museum holds a small collection of etchings portraying dwarves who in the past would have been perceived as oddities, and therefore often found employment as a source of entertainment. This etching from 1716 is of Jacob Ries who was born in Prague and performed as a court jester in Vienna.

Etching of Jacob Ries