Chinese doctors model

splendorhub (62)in #history • 9 years ago (edited)

Hi Steemit friends,
One of my many hobbies and interest is to collect antiques. I really hope to be able to share some of them here, and hope you guys find them mildly interesting.

If you are like me you like a good story. What makes a good story? To me, is a piece of history that comes with it.
Today I'd like to share an excellent example of Asian formality.
This might sound a bit bizzare but back in the 1840s this doll was the primary used for female patients to be diagnosed by their doctor.

Chinese tradition and modesty prevented doctors from examining female patients.
This piece above was a doctors desk model. The patient would point to and show the doctor the origin of pain.
This carved doctor's doll, medicine doll served as a model used by women to indicate the part of the body which ailed them. The nude lady patient is finely carved out of elephant bone. It measures approximately 10 inches long, 2 inches wide and is reclined on a wooden stand with an added head rest. In order for this piece to flow with my desk decoration, I changed the color of the the wood surface.

If you see closely, you can see that (the doll) her feet are depicted deformed from Chinese female foot binding. Ouch!
Feel free to drop a line below on the comment section.