A rare pair of French silver antique ear auricles by Gateau

The small light auricle have bespoke silver molded ear pieces which would have been made to fit the owner and were held in place without a headband . The auricle shells are copper washed for camouflage but are also made from silver and are marked D and G (droit and gauche). They come in their original oval wooden box. A similar example referred to as artificial conchae can be seen on P42 of Elizabeth Bennion’s Antique Hearing Devices.

• From the Phisick collection