Early Thumbscrews

Here are some photos of items that sold today. I suspect several of the thumbscrews were used for more than just a restraint.

Damon

Thanks for the interesting post. Where were they sold??

Ron

Here are some photos of items that sold today. I suspect several of the thumbscrews were used for more than just a restraint.

Damon

Click to expand...

Ron- It was a high end UK auction.

Damon

Here are some photos of items that sold today. I suspect several of the thumbscrews were used for more than just a restraint.

Damon

Click to expand...

Hi Damon,

Should you learn about similiar auctions in the future I would appreciate a heads up.

Thank you, Steve bookings@thedarkmaster.com

Here are some photos of items that sold today. I suspect several of the thumbscrews were used for more than just a restraint.

Damon

Click to expand...

Here is a photo of the UK auction I did win. The belt is about 30 inches and has a simple spring lock which I believe will work with a proper key.

The cap lock handcuff is neat and could be used with the vintage bolt or a pad lock. The screw lock for the cuff might indicate that the cuffs were not intended for long term unattended restraint although the rib on the nut and the slot on the tip of the screw handle would make it very easy to tighten so that tools would have been needed to loosen them.

The leg irons are very odd. They look to be a primitive, lighter, version of the Oregon boot. I am not sure if all of the items were used collectively or even from the same era. It would be possible combine them with the addition of a chain.

Damon

Here are some photos of items that sold today. I suspect several of the thumbscrews were used for more than just a restraint.

Damon

Click to expand...

Just an update on these old locks/restraints. I assumed that these items were part of a UK collection as that was the location of the private auction. It turns out these pieces were from the John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection in Worcester, MA. Sadly the museum was forced to close. The good news is that the majority of the collection will go to the local art museum. The items sold in the March auction were not considered significant enough to transfer. The museums web site is still up at http://higgins.org/history-museum

Bob Dix was kind enough to make keys for these old wonderful items. The "leg irons" are probably 300 years old locks. They were keyed differently and amazingly the locks work perfectly with the new keys. Bob does not believe that these pieces were ever designed or used as leg irons. The locks may have had may uses but they were not designed as restraints.

The steel belt has a spring lock with wards that require the key to have three separate bits to engage the spring lock. Bob estimated that the belt is about 400 years old. Again with the right key the belt lock works perfectly. Many thanks to Bob Dix.

Damon