23 October 1814: Britain’s first nose job is carried out

Joseph Constantine Carpue performed the first rhinoplasty operation – or nose job – in Britain on this day in 1814.

Caliper measuring a patient's nose
The nose job: over 200 years old today
(Image credit: © Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)

Exactly 200 years ago, Joseph Constantine Carpue performed the first rhinoplasty operation or nose job in Britain.

But plastic surgery had already been around for a while.

In India in the sixth century BC, a surgeon named Sushrata quite literally wrote the book on plastic surgery, the Sushruta-samhita. It remained required reading for budding cosmetic surgeons for centuries on the subcontinent and in the Arab world.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Carpue had read an article in a magazine describing how Indian soldiers were undergoing operations to repair facial disfigurements, and he studied the techniques extensively.

In 1799, he was appointed a surgeon at the Duke of York Hospital in Chelsea. One day, a military officer walked in who had lost his nose due to excessive inhalation of mercury (in those days, the highly toxic substance otherwise known as quicksilver was used to treat a variety of diseases).

On 23 October 1814, Carpue cut a piece of skin from the man's forehead and fashioned it into a nose, which he then grafted on to the face. For several days, the patient lay immobile with his head swaddled in bandages.

While quite possibly not up to the standards of today's Harley Street, the operation was declared a resounding success. The man's body had accepted the new nose as its own.

Carpue repeated the procedure on another patient and wrote them both up in the imaginatively titled An account of two successful operations for restoring a lost nose from the integument of the forehead.

From then on, plastic surgery continued to be developed in Europe and America, down to the present day making more than a few cosmetic surgeons extremely wealthy along the way.

Chris Carter

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.