FROST, William Adams (1853-1935) - photo 1
FROST, William Adams (1853-1935) - photo 2
FROST, William Adams (1853-1935) - photo 3
FROST, William Adams (1853-1935) - photo 4
FROST, William Adams (1853-1935) - photo 5

FROST, William Adams (1853-1935)

Lot 212
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1514389
Lot 212 | FROST, William Adams (1853-1935)
Estimate value
£ 4 000 – 6 000
FROST, William Adams (1853-1935)
The original drawings for the work entitled 'The Fundus Oculi with an Ophthalmoscopic Atlas'. 1896.
A magnificent album of exquisite drawings of the eye by William Adams Frost FRCS, assisted by Arthur W. Head. Frost’s The Fundus Oculi, with an ophthalmoscopic Atlas was published in Edinburgh in 1896; it was described in the British Medical Journal’s obituary of Frost in 1935 as 'magnificent' and 'the best on the market for many years, which has been used for teaching purposes all over the world. The plates are unsurpassed even to-day' (The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3905 (Nov. 9, 1935), p. 928).

‘Frost studied at St George’s Hospital in 1872, where he excelled and won a prize in 1874. After serving as house surgeon at the North Staffordshire Infirmary, he returned to St George’s as house surgeon and anatomy demonstrator. Choosing to specialize in ophthalmic surgery, he became a clinical assistant at Moorfields and ophthalmic registrar at St George’s. In 1881, he was appointed assistant ophthalmic surgeon under R. Brudenell Carter, later becoming full surgeon from 1892 until his retirement in 1906. He also served as the first ophthalmic surgeon at the Victoria Hospital for Children (1887–1890), won the British Medical Association’s Middlemore Prize twice (1882 and 1886), was honorary librarian of the Ophthalmological Society, and lectured on ophthalmic surgery at St George’s Hospital’ (Royal College of Surgeons of England).

Folio (363 x 260mm). Typed title pasted onto verso of preliminary endpaper and signed in ink ‘W. Adams Frost’ and ‘Arthur W. Head’, 107 finely executed watercolour drawings of the eye (from 77 x 77mm to 133 x 133mm), mounted on 47 thick card leaves, recto only, the drawings numbered in ink 1-107 and mounts numbered I-XLVII, manuscript note in pencil to mount XX noting ‘Both these are mounted upside down’ (occasional slight offsetting onto black verso of facing mount). Contemporary red morocco over thick bevelled boards gilt, sides with gilt and black rule border and decoration in gilt and black, upper cover titled in gilt ‘The Fundus Oculi. W. Adams Frost. (Original Drawings).’, spine in five compartments with raised bands gilt, two gilt clasps and catches, gilt edges, gilt turn-ins (extremities slightly rubbed). Provenance: Royal Society of Medicine (pencil shelf mark on preliminary free endpaper (crossed out), and manuscript number ‘MSS 508’).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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10.12.2025 – 10.12.2025
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