This is one of 26 plates bound at the rear of an English edition of Johann F Dieffenbach’s Surgical Observations on the Restoration of the Nose.
At $8500 (£6070), this copy in a modern calf binding fell short of expectations in a PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) of February 22, but set an auction record all the same.
In an old full vellum binding, a 1598, first octavo edition of the most famous early work in this field, Tagliacozzi’s Cheirurgia nova… made $4250 (£3035). Two issues of original folio edition had appeared the previous year and in 2015 Bonhams sold a second issue example in the Hugh Selborne library for £16,000.
A 1587, second edition of a work by Giralomo Mercuriale that includes, for the first time, a letter from Tagliacozzi that marks the first published account of his rhinoplasty procedures, made $4500 (£3215) in the recent PBA sale.
