Lion-jaw bone holding forceps, chrome plate, by Medizinisches Warenhaus, early 20th century, formerly the property of Jacques Joseph.
Used for holding bone fragments.
This instrument forms part of a set owned by German plastic surgeon Jacques Joseph (1865–1934). Joseph is considered the founder of modern nasal surgery, and was an important pioneer of plastic facial surgery generally. He reported for the first time on a simultaneous intranasal correction of a protuberant nose with a correction of the anterior septum in 1904. During World War I he carried out enormous numbers of reconstructive surgeries on facially wounded soldiers, and for the last 13 years of his life he maintained a busy practice primarily in aesthetic surgery. In his comprehensive monograph of 1931 ‘Nasal Plastic Surgery and Other Facial Procedures, and the Plastic Surgery of the Breast’, Joseph brought together his many contributions to this field of surgery, including descriptions of how to use the many instruments he devised for nasal surgery. In this text he also outlined his beliefs that the primary aim of facial plastic surgery is to improve the patient’s quality of life through its positive psychological effect.
