Details

LOT 0533

Greek Silver Medical Implement with Snake Handle

4TH-3RD CENTURY B.C.

10 in. (68 grams, 25 cm long).

A silver and copper-alloy medical instrument, oval in shape, the handle formed as a snake with shallow hatched pattern on the body representing scales, stylised rendering of the snake's head.

Provenance

Acquired mid 1980s to early 1990s.
Private family collection formed in London, UK.

Accompanied by a metal test assessment number 182971/HM1456 from an Oxford specialist.

Literature

Cf. Milne, J.S., Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman times, Oxford, 1907, pl.XI,4, for a spatula with a similar snake handle.

Footnotes

The use of this spatula (probe) for medical assessment can be confirmed by its snake-shaped handle, evidently a reference to the god Asklepios, whose symbol was a staff with a serpent wrapped around it. Such implements, called 'ἀπυρομήλη', were used in the Graeco-Persian world. The survival of the handle in this example makes it a rare find.