Patek Philippe Given to 1918 Pandemic Doctor Heads to Auction

Dallas—In 1918, a devastating pandemic known as the Spanish flu was ravaging the United States, and many of the measures taken, and lessons learned, then mirror those of the current crisis.

It’s very timely, then, that an 18-karat gold Patek Philippe pocket watch owned by the doctor who helped guide the U.S. through that pandemic more than a century ago will go up for auction next month at Heritage Auctions in Dallas.

At the time of the Spanish flu outbreak, Rupert Blue served as surgeon general.

He counseled Americans to follow a number of protocols that will sound familiar—wearing facial coverings, practicing social distancing, and closing establishments where large numbers of people gather, like schools and churches.

Blue was only 50 years old at the time the Spanish flu took hold of the country but he’d already navigated several crises as a member of the U.S. Public Health Service, most notably the bubonic plague that swept through San Francisco in two waves—in 1903-1904 and then again from 1907-1908.

Blue understood the disease would only be cured if doctors figured out how it spread and who was impacted.

He established a lab and office in the San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood, the center of the outbreak, and embarked on a campaign to disinfect the city and exterminate its rats.

When he left San Francisco to help cities plagued with other issues, its health department awarded Blue with a proclamation thanking him for “his skillful and energetic cooperation in all pertaining to the welfare of San Francisco’s high sanitary state and commercial prosperity.”

For his work eradicating the plague from the city, he received the 18-karat gold Patek Philippe pocket watch.

Its inside dust cover bears the following inscription (as seen in the picture below): “To Rupert Blue P.A. Surgeon, U.S.P.H. and M.H.S. from the citizens of San Francisco. In grateful recognition of services rendered the city while in command of the Sanitation Campaign of 1908.”