A SILVER STORK-SHAPED BIRTH CLAMP
Qajar Iran, late 19th century

Shaped as a stork resting on two oval rings, the body engraved with plumage and the eyes set with glass beads, inside the stork's belly a swaddled baby sucking his thumb, stamped to one base 'Amal-e Ja'far (the work of the silversmith Ja'far), and to the latter Farmayesh-e Pascal (commissioned by Pascal), 12cm at its highest point.

Stork clamps, also commonly described as 'umbilical cord scissors', were very peculiar and unique tools used by European surgeons and midwives already in the 18th century. Their fame started rising and by the 19th century, they had become intrinsically connected with birth annoucements. Their effective use is still debated, but it is believed that in France, they served the function of pinching the umbilical cord immediately after the birth, before the placenta was expelled in order to stop the outflow of blood. Being made of silver, they could be boiled and the rounded base let them stand upright, keeping them free from bacterias on working surfaces before use.

Another source indicates they were used by wealthy families as good omen against the evil eye in the days when there was a high rate of infant mortality. According to the tradition, the stork clamp would be placed on the chimney mantle to announce, in a discreet way, that a birth was expected, without saying it out loud (http://www.silvercollection.it/dictionaryumbilicalscissors.html).

This stork birth clamp is a rare and unusual memento of a European commission to one of the greatest Qajar silversmiths in Iran, Ja'far. The owner, possibly a French surgeon, must have been based in Iran and commissioned the clamp in the late 19th - early 20th century, when Ja'far workshop in Isfahan was fully active. European in its essence and conception but Iranian in its craftsmanship, this object embodies the unique merge between Western practices and Iranian culture, typical of the Qajar era.