Fleam with three blades and a knife, aluminium scales

Veterinary folding multi-blade fleam with Alu scales

Veterinary fleam, a folding multi-blade lancet for bloodletting in large domestic animals, primarily horses and cattle. The instrument consists of three folding steel blades of differing widths, and a knife-blade mounted together within decorated aluminium scales. Each blade has slightly different size and could be individually deployed, allowing the practitioner to select an appropriate blade according to the animal species and the targeted blood vessel in cattle (e.g. jugular, tail, or auricular veins).

Origin

Decoration and markings: The aluminium scales 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. The scales bear the inscriptions “Qualité BG Supérieure” and “Déposé”. That denotes a trade quality designation, while “Déposé” indicates that the decorative design was registered under French industrial design protection. Ornaments with floral motifs in the shape of edelweiss flowers were common in Alpine regions.

Such markings are characteristic of commercially distributed instruments produced by regional workshops rather than major Parisian surgical manufacturers. 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. Numerous small workshops supplying distributors. 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. No 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. Given these converging factors, Thiers (highlighted today with a Musee de la coutellerie) represents the most plausible manufacturing center, although no definitive maker’s mark has been identified.

Dating

The estimated production period of circa 1890–1925 is supported by multiple independent indicators:

The use of embossed aluminium is a key chronological indicator. Aluminium became widely available and affordable for consumer and professional goods only from the late 19th century onward, following advances in industrial production. Earlier fleams were typically fitted with horn, bone, brass, or steel scales. So, presence of aluminium scales indicates the earliest date — unlikely before 1890. 

Markings: “Déposé” design registration marking isconsistent with late 19th- and early 20th-century commercial practice. Trade-grade quality inscription i a  characteristic of turn-of-the-century cutlery commerce. 

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 scales (not before 1890), the registered decorative design “Déposé” and the commercial quality marking (common in the late 19th through early 20th century), and the persistence of bloodletting in veterinary practice till early 20th century this fleam can be dated with high probability to circa 1890–1925.

Condition report

Condition Grade 1 (Mild), slight wear traces. 

Provenance

Acquired from Swiss antique knife store in 2026 via eBay.