Antique Brass-Cased Three-Blade Bloodletting Fleam, Circa 1800s-1850s

Folding fleam with three steel blades of graduated size housed in a brass case. Fleams were used by physicians, barbers and farriers to open a vein for bloodletting, one of the oldest and longest-lasting treatments in Western medicine, still in use into the mid-19th century. Shows wear, patina and surface rust consistent with age.