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"SMIC" surgical scalpel blades, packet of 12
Object/Artifact
A small commercial packet of surgical (scalpel) blades, branded SMIC, holding twelve individually wrapped blades. The outer sleeve is printed in yellow, white, and blue with "SURGICAL Blades" and "12 PIECES" in English and a diamond-shaped SMIC logo. Inside are individual blades wrapped in waxed/glassine paper. The packet is the standard mid-century pharmacy/surgical-supply format in which a dozen sterile-wrapped blades were boxed for sale.
2025.1.47
Belonged to Leopoldo Arús Gálvez
The Cabrera Arús family collection
Leopoldo Arús Gálvez collection
2025.1
SMIC
Shanghai
People's Republic of China
Asia
DATE / PERIOD: Not dated; People's Republic of China, later twentieth century (estimated). The use of a dedicated Shanghai medical-instruments export company points to the period after China's foreign-trade system spun off specialized corporations (broadly the 1970s–1980s).
Outer sleeve: "SURGICAL Blades"; "12 PIECES"; diamond SMIC logo (with small Chinese characters within the device).
Good
Leopoldo Arús Gálvez
owner
SMIC
producer
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
preservation
Shanghai
People's Republic of China
Asia
production
This is a Chinese export packet of surgical scalpel blades sold by a Shanghai state medical-instruments trading company. The survival of a complete, unopened packet is consistent with long retention, plausibly reinforced by the scarcity of imported medical consumables. On provenance: Chinese goods reached Cuba through state-to-state trade between the PRC and Cuba.