The nose job may seem to have become an almost routine procedure for budding pop stars, actors and models, but an early 19th century work on the subject has given an insight into how brutal such surgery used to be.

The book Surgical Observations on the Restoration of the Nose goes into wince-making detail on operations designed to correct misshapen olfactory organs.

The work, by the surgeon John Stevenson, describes how scissors, quills, pins and needles should be used to carry out operations. It makes no mention of anaesthetic or pain relief, though it does detail how an assistant should hold a patient down.

It includes case studies of people who underwent the gruesome procedures, such as one baron who lost the tip of his nose in a duelling accident.

Chris Albury, of Dominic Winter Auctions which is selling the tome, said: "It shows that celebrities today are not the first in this country to go under the surgeon's knife to improve the look of their noses."