Eye Prostheses

What are these devices?

This is a set of prosthetic glass eyes (ocular prostheses). It contains 12 opaque, 21 concave and 17 spherical glass prostheses by an unknown maker. They date between the early and mid-twentieth century.

These objects are currently on loan to, and on diplsay in, the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeosn of England.

What do they do?

Technicians carefully crafted glass replacements for missing eyes. The glass eyes are non-functional and do not move. However they provide facial harmony and satisfaction for patients with missing eyes.

Significance to Plastic Surgery

The wide variation of shapes and colours available allowed plastic surgeons to adapt these prostheses to the needs of each patient. In his 1920 work Plastic Surgery of the Face, Harold Gillies describes using glass globes wrapped in a Thiersch (split skin) graft to re-line the eye socket (orbit) into which was then inserted the artificial eye. These glass eyes show the development of reconstructive procedures, and the importance of the personal care and attention for each patient.

Contributor: Idil Longe