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Faking It
Civil War
Surgical Sets
Dr. Michael Echols
Buying or even
selling a "real" Civil War surgical set is difficult at best. There
are precious few references or "experts" to help with identification
and much of what is sold publicly as "Civil War" is not. Some of
the problem is unintentional or based on long-held inaccuracies
among auction houses and antique dealers. The rest is pure and
simple fraud.
Putting It to the
Test
To be a true Civil War surgical antique, the first test is quite
simple: the set or instruments must have existed prior to or were
made during the Civil War years. If the maker did not exist until
after the Civil War, it is safe to assume the set is not Civil War.
If the maker was a designated supplier to the U.S. Army Medical
Department during the War, you can make the assumption that their
production during the War is "Civil War," especially if it is marked
"U. S. Army Medical or Hospital Department" or some abbreviation
thereof. Maker verification can be ascertained from Edmonson's
excellent reference book, American Surgical Instruments: An
Illustrated History.
The second test is provenance. If the set existed prior to or during
the Civil War, who owned it and how are you going to prove it was
owned by an Army surgeon or a civilian contract surgeon? Odds are
you cannot prove anything for 100 percent certain, but some sets
were kept by families and they have copious letters, photos, etc.
which may serve the purpose. Of course you also need to prove the
surgeon who owned the set was present during the War, as either Army
or civilian. If the set is a marked military set with sliding
latches and a brass plate showing Army markings, there is no doubt
about its use. But a word of caution: there are fake engraved brass
plates showing up with Army markings.
Timelines
For pre-War sets, knowing the approximate creation date is very
important because an amputation set from 1840 isn't likely to have
been used in the 1860s. Contrary to popular opinion, the doctors who
were non-Union Army surgeons were not the ones doing the cutting on
the frontline or in the rear hospitals. It would have been the most
experienced full surgeons who did the actual cutting and not a
bandage changer from Boston who just graduated from medical school.
Experienced surgeons would have wanted the most up-to-date
instruments available and not some set brought over from England or
France after the War of 1812. For Confederate medical sets, the
field is wide open and since there were no Confederate designated
contract suppliers, CSA sets are almost impossible to designate as
"Civil War" unless there is extensive provenance. There are no CSA
military issued sets; only Union Army sets are so marked.
Now that we have the basic guidelines about the sets, let's discuss
individual instruments. Unless you have extensive experience with
identification of instruments, the odds of spotting replacement
instruments in existing sets is limited to noticing if they do not
exactly fit in the slots of the case (they should fit perfectly) and
there should only be one makers' name on all the instruments in 99
percent of the cases. As soon as you see multiple maker names and
lots of missing parts, walk on by.
Faked surgical sets come in two general forms: misdirection about
the actual dates of manufacture (perhaps unintentional and done out
of ignorance) or outright fraud with the intention of selling
something that bears no relationship to the truth. As with all
antiques, your best defense is knowledge.
About the author: Dr. Michael Echols is a collector of American
surgical antiques, not a dealer. His collection and extensive
information about Civil War surgical sets is available on this
website.
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