A pair of Dr Wansbrough’s metalic nipple shields with original box and instructions for American distribution.

Nipple shields were made from a variety of materials in the 18th and 19th centuries, wood, ivory and silver the most common. They were intended to protect the mothers sore nipples. They were often perforated allowing the baby to feed through them (probably with considerable difficulty). These unperforated examples would have been removed before feeding. The dangers of lead poisoning were well known when these were manufactured in the mid 19th century.

The accompanying leaflet reads:

The attention of the Medical Profession was first drawn to this subject by Dr Wansbrough (the inventor), in a paper in the Lancet, July 1842; and he afterward brought it before the society of Arts in 1843, when he read a paper to that Society entering fully into the nature of the above malady, and the philosophy of this instrument, both as a preventative and a cure

• From the Phisick collection