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What on earth possessed me ....? Even the original is horrible ....

Twenty years ago an eBay seller was off-printing various ABW images onto wooden items, which were then varnished and aged by rubbing them down with fine emery paper. Subjects that received this treatment included Baden-Powell, Churchill and the "Sop the War Committee". For a brief period matchbox stands, vesta cases, fans and other small pieces of treenware appeared regularly amongst my "Boer War" search results.




A wooden fan with portraits of Queen Victoria, Lord Roberts & Baden-Powell, together with a photograph of the original item, reproduced in Hamlyn's "History of the Boer War" (London, 1999). Hamlyn credits E.T. Archive, London, for the latter image.






"Stop the War Committee" matchbox stand. At art college we used to off-print from photocopies using paint-thinners to release the ink from the paper. I imagine a similar technique was used here.







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This magnificent cased set of surgical instruments came up at auction in 2015. On the lid was a nicely engraved brass escutcheon, inscribed: "Presented to / Dr I.J. [or J.J.?] Rabbit / of the Hospital Ship Maine / by the R.A.M.C. / in recognition of his services / in the Anglo-Boer War".

On the face of it, this appeared to be a highly important presentation piece to one of the seven surgeons who served on the Maine (five on the first voyage plus two later replacements). However, research soon established that none of these was called Dr Rabbit. Indeed, medal rolls indicate that no Dr Rabbit served during the Boer War at all.
The R.A.M.C. and the UK medical register similarly list no such surgeon (for any period), and all databases in the US have also drawn a blank.

Put simply, during the period that the inscription alludes to, there is no mention anywhere of a surgeon in the UK or the States with the name Rabbit. The only “Dr Rabbit” I could find was a cartoon character....!

Also, all of the surgeons on the Maine were Americans, so would have had no obvious connection with the R.A.M.C., who, according to the inscription, made the presentation.

Further investigation revealed the case to be a British Army issue c. 1917 Pattern aseptic surgical instrument set from WWI.

Faced with the above evidence, the auction house agreed "they had been duped" (their words), and the instruments were returned to the seller.

Fast forward ten years, and the same set resurfaced in a different auction room. However, this time there was one noteable difference: an attempt had been made to either erase or age the inscription.













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