This box contains a set of five different sized but similar metal instruments and a pair of scissors. All the instruments have been individually labelled in Chinese with red gourd shaped stickers and a typed label in English has been slid under each instrument: Scissors and Reaper's hook No 1-5. Not much is known about these instruments and extensive research has failed to find similar examples. The implements are nickel plated reflecting Western medical influence and have been sewn into the velvet lining of a cardboard box in a form of packaging common to merchandising in the southern parts of China. The name Reaper's hook probably refers to the form rather than the function and the instruments may have been used to debride and clean wounds and remove external lesions on the skin surface.

Presumed to have been made in China

This box of scrapping instruments is part of the contents of a Chinese medicine chest held at the Asian Studies Department of the University of Sydney since the late 1950's, and later donated to the Powerhouse Museum in 1994. The chest was among a small collection of Chinese artefacts and medicinal substances related to traditional cultural practices, thought to have been collected in China in the first half of the 20th century by an Australian protestant missionary J. Whitsed Dovey (1887-1956) for missionary education.

Box containing scraping instruments, lid and base, from Chinese medicine chest, cardboard/paper/metal/glass/velvet, maker unknown, China, c 1925.
Rectangular cardboard box; covered in paper. Lid has clear glass cover; with sides covered in brightly colored striped paper. Inset in base is blue velvet padding; sewn onto the velvet are 6x scraping instruments; each has individual labels attached in both English & Chinese describing their function; base underside is covered in green floral paper with red sides.
(-1) Lid
(-2) Base with medical instruments

Made: China; 1920 - 1930

Owned: Asian Studies Department of the University of Sydney; Sydney

96/253/1-13

1920 - 1930

25 mm

100 mm