Historical Question: Nose Jobs!

[Eve]

The person I’m writing about had a nose job done in the late 1940s, by Sir Archibald McIndoe, who was famed for his reconstructive work on injured WWII soldiers.

Does anyone know anything about the history of nose jobs, how advanced they were by the late '40s? Any Web sites? I did a Google word-search on “rhinoplasty,” but all I came up with was thousands of doctors anxious to reshape my honker.

I know Fanny Brioce had her nose bobbed in the 1920s, but other than that I know nothing about the development of history of honker-snipping. Anyone?

[douglips]

This looks promising, though you’ll need to find the journal or get a password to view the full article: The History of Aesthetic Rhinoplasty: Special Emphasis on the Saddle Nose

OOoooh, this looks REALLY good:
Article with a title I can’t make sound interesting.
This is a history of plastic surgery, and has a reference to a book which has more details.

Excerpts:

One surgeon in particular stands out from this time. Jacques Joseph (1865-1934) was born Jakob Lewin Joseph, second son of Rabbi Israel Joseph, in Koningsberg, Prussia…Joseph’s first case was a young boy, who refused to attend school because he suffered such ridicule from classmates for his large, protruding ears. In 1896, the boy’s mother approached Joseph for advice, asking if there might be surgical relief for her son’s affliction. Although Joseph was unaware of such surgery having been performed before, he felt it was possible and after careful planning operated successfully.

Two years later, Joseph performed his second facial plastic procedure on a 28-year-old man whose extremely large nose caused him such embarrassment that he could not bear to appear in public…Again he succeeded, and in May 1898 reported this achievement to the Berlin Medical Society.

Hope this helps.

[Eve]

Oh, thanks, Doug! I bookmarked that second one and will go through it to see what I can find.

—“No Nose Nanette”

[Little_Nemo]

1896? Nose jobs go a little farther back than that.

Let’s set the Wayback machine to the year 695. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian II has just been kicked off the throne by a tax revolt. Under the then prevailing rules, funny looking people can’t be Emperor, so the new Emperor has Justinian’s nose cut off (which naturally spites his face).

Justinian goes into exile, but in 705 he returns. Everyone is surprised to see that he now once again has a nose. Being as he also has a large army of Bulgarian mercenaries, everyone agrees that he can be Emperor once again.

Best speculation is that while he was in exile, Justinian took a trip to India where the doctors of that era were already working on reconstructive surgery. Their methods admittedly left much to be desired by modern standards but the fact is that the nose job has been around for 1300 years ago.

[John_Corrado]

And forget not famed medeval astronomer Tycho Brahe, who had (IIRC) his nose bitten off in a fight, and had a replacement cast out of silver, which he wore strapped to his face.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/980717.html

[timmar68]

Eve, I am currently reading a book called, “Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery” by Elizabeth Haiken. It’s very thorough and interesting and talks about plastic surgery through the ages, starting at the turn of the century. It DOES talk about reconstructing soldiers faces after the war at length. Maybe give that a try?