In the war-torn late-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, amputee soldiers were an everyday sight. In 1805, Benjamin Silliman, noted, “It is a very common thing here to meet those who have lost a leg or an arm.…I know not why they are suffered to beg, for, surely, government ought to take care of them.”
Today, hardly a week goes by without us hearing about some amazing new medical device or procedure. Think back to the eighteenth century for a moment, and what would you guess was the most significant medical advance of that century? The answer is rather frightening. Remember that in those not-so-long-ago days, when antibiotics and modern surgery and anesthesia had not yet enabled repair to injured limbs, amputation was relatively common place. To take off a limb without fatal blood loss was challenging, so the prize for the medical advance of the eighteenth century goes to a screw tourniquet invented in 1718 by the French surgeon Jean Louis Petit. This device reduced the risk of below-the-knee amputations and it enabled above-the-knee amputations in some instances.
Early Staffordshire figures mirror life warts and all--or should I say artificial limbs and all?--and so we find several figure models of amputee soldiers. The figure below leaves no doubt as to what we are seeing.
Today, hardly a week goes by without us hearing about some amazing new medical device or procedure. Think back to the eighteenth century for a moment, and what would you guess was the most significant medical advance of that century? The answer is rather frightening. Remember that in those not-so-long-ago days, when antibiotics and modern surgery and anesthesia had not yet enabled repair to injured limbs, amputation was relatively common place. To take off a limb without fatal blood loss was challenging, so the prize for the medical advance of the eighteenth century goes to a screw tourniquet invented in 1718 by the French surgeon Jean Louis Petit. This device reduced the risk of below-the-knee amputations and it enabled above-the-knee amputations in some instances.
Early Staffordshire figures mirror life warts and all--or should I say artificial limbs and all?--and so we find several figure models of amputee soldiers. The figure below leaves no doubt as to what we are seeing.
More than one pot bank made this figure model. The example on the left is "Sherratt"--the base establishes the attribution.
 Courtesy Brighton and Hove Museums, UK. |  Courtesy John Howard |
The soldiers above are far from common, but even less common are the models below.
 Courtesy Andrew Dando |  Courtesy Woolley and Wallis Salisbury Salerooms Ltd. |
