George Tiemann and CO. Wooden Cased Three Tier Civil War Era Surgical Instrument Case Circa 1860s

This near complete lovely Tiemann surgical set dates to the mid 1860s to 1880s, like the 1860s. The surgical set is sitting in my office and as I type I do not have access to the the Tiemann Logo present on the surgical set which was not photographed by my photographer. I believe it is from 67 Chatham Street which would date it from 1864 to 1886 but I have to double check the logo.

The set is near complete but when I acquired it, someone had drilled in a handle at the top of the wooden case which I removed as it was not orignial. This explains the four holes at the top of the box. As you will find when collecting antique surgical sets over the years, you may buy an item that does is missing parts or instruments or has added parts or instruments that do not belong to the original set. In my opinion, these should be removed unless a perfect replacement that fits can be found but that is at the discretion of every collector.

The brass plate overlying where they key enters is also missing as are about 5-10% of instruments. It is very rare to find a 100% complete surgical set from that is 100 plus years old.

All in all despite the above imperfections, this was one of my first Tiemann surgical sets from the civil war era (around the Americal Civil War which went from 1861 to 1865 but if you use the word “era” among collectors, it can mean 1860s to 1880s, depending on whom you speak to) and I am happy with it.