Weiss and Sons Catalogues belonging to H.C.F. Baxter and A.G. Voigt

Fonds

A.2025.0001

07/1911-01/1954

4 volumes

The John Weiss and Son company was founded in 1787 by John Weiss (1773-1843) a highly-respected Master Cutler and surgical instrument maker, and created the amputation saw. who was born in Germany and moved to London to start the company, which manufactured surgical instruments. Weiss issued the company's first catalogue in 1823 and was later appointed 'Razor Maker to the King' under William IV. The instruments became supplier of choice to the British Army during the nineteenth century, and upon Weiss' death, his son Frederick took over the business which changed its name to John Weiss and Son, and created a special exhibition piece known as the 'Blade Tree' to showcase the company's instruments at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The products were referenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the Sherlock Holmes novel 'Silver Blaze'.

John Weiss became a limited company with shareholders in 1899 and remained in London for most of the twentieth century. The company was acquired by Clement Clarke in 1971 and became part of the Haag-Streit Group in 1989, ceasing trading in 2022.

The collection consists of four catalogues, that contain additional notes, articles and hand-drawn designs by two former directors of the company, H.C.F. Baxter and A.G. Voigt.

Four catalogues of Ophthalmic Instruments and Appliances manufactured by John Weiss and Son Limited, which contain annotations by former directors, Henry C.F. Baxter and A.G. Voigt, in preparation for future editions of the catalogue, and loose papers including pamphlets, handwritten notes, product designs, newspaper cuttings, notes on Solid Carbon Dioxide treatment reprinted by the editor of the Lancet, programme for the London Ophthalmic Congress in 1940 which included displays from John Weiss and Son, examples of Royal Air Force emergency eye kits [manufactured during the Second World War] and designs of sets of ophthalmic instruments manufactured for the War Office. The catalogues are dated 1911, 1927, 1934 and 1947, and contain lists of products made by John Weiss and Son including eye specula, eye-lid retractors, lachrymal probes, canaliculus instruments, lachrymal sac instruments, sclerectomy instruments, knives, sharp spoons, needles, forceps, curettes, cystitomes, cataract spoons, hooks, spatulas, strabismus instruments, scissors, syringes, electro-magnets, sterilizers, ophthalmoscopes, retinoscopes, optometres, perimetres, pupilometres, trial cases, eye tests, ophthalmic lamps, demonstrating apparatus, eye shades, artificial eyes, operating tables, glaucoma instruments. The catalogues also contain a list of hospitals which used the Moorfields Ophthalmic Diatherm, a price list for John Weiss and Son products dated 1954, catalogue of instruments sold by Ernst Grieshaber Schaffhouse Suisse.

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