Everyone who deals with antiques sooner or later encounters fakes, collectors of surgical instruments and medical historians are no exception. One of the most frequently counterfeited, or rather issued with fake description – is the lancet, perhaps the most commonly used instrument of the surgeon up to the beginning of the 20th century. The classic antique surgical lancet was an instrument used for opening abscesses, phlebotomy (bloodletting) and other procedures requiring a precise and minimal incision. In appearance, it resembled a small, thin, pointed, double-edged knife that allowed the doctor to make clean and precise incisions. The presented specimen appeared to be not a "silver Victorian lancet", but something else...

Establishing the publication date of a medical trade catalogs is not always trivial. Many medical instrument manufacturers did without catalogs for many years – there was simply no need for them. Then, when the first trade catalogs of medical and surgical instruments appeared, they often omitted the date of their publications. There are several indications that can be used to determine the approximate year of publication of catalogs, which are discussed in this article.