Fleam with three blades and a knife in aluminium scales

Flamme vétérinaire (Lancette de saignée)

French folding multi-blade lancet Belle Époque with decorative aluminum handle scales, with four folding steel blades — one knife and three lancets. Antique veterinary instrument for bloodletting (Fr. Flamme vétérinaire, Lancette de saignée) in large domestic animals, primarily horses and cattle. Each lancet is slightly different in size (the largest is 18 mm depths) and can be used separately, allowing to choose the appropriate blade depending on the type of animal and the target blood vessel in cattle (e.g., jugular, tail, or ear veins). After placing the tip of the lancet on the skin opposite the vein, a blow is applied to its back with a special hammer or wooden stick, ensuring a quick, almost painless incision of the vein — venesection.

Origin

The aluminium scales of the fleam handle are embossed in relief with animal motifs: a horse on one side and a cow on the reverse. These motifs explicitly reference the instrument’s intended veterinary use and reflect a late 19th- and early 20th-century tendency toward visual identification and commercial branding of professional tools. Ornaments with floral motifs in the shape of edelweiss flowers were common in Alpine regions. The scales bear the inscriptions “Qualité BG Supérieure” and “Déposé”. The first one denotes a trade quality designation and initials of the manufacturer, while “Déposé” indicates that the decorative design was registered under French industrial design protection. Such markings are characteristic of commercially distributed instruments produced by regional workshops rather than major Parisian surgical manufacturers. Abbreviation instead of a clear markings suggest production by major Paris surgical houses (e.g., Collin, Mathieu) or by other regional centers such as Nogent, which specialized more heavily in fine surgical instruments.

All that indicates that the fleam was probably manufactured in the town Thiers ( département Puy-de-Dôme, région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), the historic center of French cutlery production, including folding knives, farriers’ implements, and veterinary instruments, highlighted today in the Muse de la coutellerie. Instruments were frequently stamped with trade quality marks rather than individual maker names. The folding format, riveted aluminium scales, and embossed decorative program correspond closely to known Thiers knife-making practices of the Belle Époque period. The initials "B" and "G" can indicate one of the prominent manufacturers of the region — "BÉLIN & GUYOT" well known for high-quality table knives, but like many large Thiers workshops, they produced depending on the coming orders also specialized tools including medical lancets and folding fleams.

Dating

The estimated production period of circa 1890–1915 is supported by multiple independent indicators:

The use of embossed aluminium is a key chronological indicator. Before the development of the Hall–Héroult electrolytic process in 1886, aluminium was an exceptionally rare and costly material. Produced through laborious chemical reduction methods, it was manufactured only in small quantities and at great expense; in the mid-nineteenth century, its price rivaled or even exceeded that of silver. Aluminium was therefore regarded as a novel and prestigious metal, displayed at international exhibitions and occasionally used for luxury or experimental objects rather than for everyday manufacture. The introduction of large-scale electrolytic production after 1886 dramatically reduced costs and increased availability. By the 1890s, aluminium had become commercially viable and rapidly gained popularity in decorative and applied arts. Its light weight, resistance to corrosion, and suitability for casting, pressing, and embossing made it particularly attractive for ornamental details on domestic goods, cutlery, tools, and Art Nouveau design objects at the turn of the twentieth century. So, presence of aluminium decorative scales indicates the earliest date — unlikely before 1890. 

Markings and decorations: “Déposé” design registration marking is consistent with late 19th- and early 20th-century commercial practice. Trade-grade quality inscription is a  characteristic of turn-of-the-century cutlery commerce. The decorative treatment of this instrument—featuring flowing vegetal ornament, asymmetrical composition, and naturalistic representations of livestock—is consistent with the Art Nouveau aesthetic that flourished during the Belle Époque period (1871–1914). This style favored organic, sinuous forms and pastoral imagery, and it was frequently applied even to utilitarian objects, reflecting a broader cultural integration of artistic design and industrial production at the turn of the twentieth century.

The horse and cow are rendered in a naturalistic manner, with soft modeling and without geometric stylization, set within a modest pastoral setting that includes architectural and landscape elements in the background. Such romanticized rural imagery is characteristic of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century agricultural and industrial graphic design of the Belle Époque, whereas by the 1920s animal figures tended to become more simplified, linear, and less pictorial.

Following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, industrial manufacture increasingly emphasized functional restraint, material economy, and simplified forms. While decorative elements did not disappear entirely in the post-war period, the elaborate and fluid ornamental vocabulary characteristic of the high Belle Époque gradually gave way to more restrained and, in the 1920s, more geometrically stylized tendencies associated with emerging Art Deco design.

The distinctly organic and naturalistic character of the ornament on this fleam aligns more closely with pre-war decorative practice than with the stylistic developments of the 1920s. On stylistic grounds, therefore, the instrument is most plausibly dated to the late Belle Époque, that is, the early twentieth century prior to or around the First World War. A production date in the first decade of the twentieth century is most consistent with the decorative evidence, while manufacture in the immediate pre-war years cannot be excluded.

Bloodletting veterinary practice. The venesection procedure (Bloodletting) had largely fallen out of favor in human medicine by the late 19th century, but it persisted longer in veterinary practice, particularly in rural and agricultural settings. Horses—essential for transport, agriculture, and military use—and cattle were frequently subjected to venesection as part of humoral and empirical therapeutic traditions. Persistence of veterinary bloodletting was decreasing to the beginning of the 20th century, however could still practiced in rural Europe into the 1910s–1920s. After the 1920s–1930s, advances in veterinary physiology and pathology led to the rapid decline of bloodletting as a standard therapeutic intervention. Fleams of this type therefore represent the final phase of practical veterinary bloodletting instruments before their obsolescence. Fleams such as this one represent the final generation of actively used veterinary bloodletting instruments, before their transition into obsolescence and eventual collection as historical artifacts.

Thus, based on the presence of aluminium decorative scales (not before 1890), the registered decorative design “Déposé” and the commercial quality marking (common in the late 19th through early 20th century), Art Nouveau floral and pastoral design of scales typical for pre-War period, and the persistence of bloodletting in veterinary practice till early 20th century this fleam can be dated with high probability to circa 1890–1915.

Condition report

Condition Grade 1 (Mild), slight wear traces. 

Provenance

Acquired from Swiss antique knife store in 2026 via eBay.