2 unknown vintage British restraints

Dear fellow collectors,

today I want to show you two vintage British restraints from my collection, hoping that somebody could provide me with information about age and/or manufacturer.



The first is a non adjustable Darby handcuff, which pretty looks like a Hiatt Type 104, but it lacks all the typical Hiatt markings. Instead it is only marked "BE" on one of the cylinder-tops. Unfortunately I do not have a key for these cuffs.



The other restraint are heavy plug leg irons - REALLY heavy leg irons, weighting about 3.5 kilograms. They are only marked with the number "25". For size-comparison you can also see a Hiatt 2003 on the picture.

Any information is welcome.

Regards,
Guenter aka Atame

Guenter

Sorry I can not help you identify either cuff. But I must say that the leg iron is really super.
Congratulations on a very nice find.

Joe

Dear fellow collectors,

today I want to show you two vintage British restraints from my collection, hoping that somebody could provide me with information about age and/or manufacturer.



The first is a non adjustable Darby handcuff, which pretty looks like a Hiatt Type 104, but it lacks all the typical Hiatt markings. Instead it is only marked "BE" on one of the cylinder-tops. Unfortunately I do not have a key for these cuffs.



The other restraint are heavy plug leg irons - REALLY heavy leg irons, weighting about 3.5 kilograms. They are only marked with the number "25". For size-comparison you can also see a Hiatt 2003 on the picture.

Any information is welcome.

Regards,
Guenter aka Atame

Click to expand...

Thank you, Joe.

I believe that the leg irons are a kind of "Ball and Chain" without ball. The cuffs are more than 1 m separated, so that you can make quite large steps. But the chain is so heavy that running is nearly impossible. I think the large ring in the middle is meant to hold the chain by hand while walking.

Regards,
Guenter
www.atame.info

Dear fellow collectors,

today I want to show you two vintage British restraints from my collection, hoping that somebody could provide me with information about age and/or manufacturer.



The first is a non adjustable Darby handcuff, which pretty looks like a Hiatt Type 104, but it lacks all the typical Hiatt markings. Instead it is only marked "BE" on one of the cylinder-tops. Unfortunately I do not have a key for these cuffs.



The other restraint are heavy plug leg irons - REALLY heavy leg irons, weighting about 3.5 kilograms. They are only marked with the number "25". For size-comparison you can also see a Hiatt 2003 on the picture.

Any information is welcome.

Regards,
Guenter aka Atame

Click to expand...

Hi Gunter
Sorry I can not really spread much light on the subject, the Darby pattern handcuffs certainly seem like Hiatt judging by the way the end cap has been put in. Is it possible the letters are BR? in which case they could have been issued to the British Rail Police (they have their own officers who have the power to arrest).
Of course the best item are the wonderful heavy Plug Leg-Irons. Did you get them from Germany or over here in England? They do appear to have similarities to the Griffin Leg-Irons that I once owner and are shown on page 79 of Alex's book. Recently sold a nice set of 'Unknown' makers cuffs to Joe (Fig 3 page 83 of Alexs book). I had examined them carefully but found no maker on them. Joe examined them under strong light with a magnifying glass and found FFIN very faintly on them so we can attribute them to Griffin. Perhaps Joe can talk us all through his scientific approach to identify possible marks. I am sure there is a lot we can learn.

Dear fellow collectors,

today I want to show you two vintage British restraints from my collection, hoping that somebody could provide me with information about age and/or manufacturer.



The first is a non adjustable Darby handcuff, which pretty looks like a Hiatt Type 104, but it lacks all the typical Hiatt markings. Instead it is only marked "BE" on one of the cylinder-tops. Unfortunately I do not have a key for these cuffs.



The other restraint are heavy plug leg irons - REALLY heavy leg irons, weighting about 3.5 kilograms. They are only marked with the number "25". For size-comparison you can also see a Hiatt 2003 on the picture.

Any information is welcome.

Regards,
Guenter aka Atame

Click to expand...

Chris

Here is the picture of the unusual Griffin cuff you mentioned. At first glance you can not see the name. When I first saw them at your place I certainly did not see anything. The name becomes visible only under a strong light coming in from an angle.

I find it is a good idea to look at each cuff I get from several different angles on several different days. Sometimes you get lucky and you see things you never could see before.

Joe

Dear fellow collectors,

today I want to show you two vintage British restraints from my collection, hoping that somebody could provide me with information about age and/or manufacturer.



The first is a non adjustable Darby handcuff, which pretty looks like a Hiatt Type 104, but it lacks all the typical Hiatt markings. Instead it is only marked "BE" on one of the cylinder-tops. Unfortunately I do not have a key for these cuffs.



The other restraint are heavy plug leg irons - REALLY heavy leg irons, weighting about 3.5 kilograms. They are only marked with the number "25". For size-comparison you can also see a Hiatt 2003 on the picture.

Any information is welcome.

Regards,
Guenter aka Atame

Click to expand...

Hello Chris,

the marking on the handcuff-top is absolutely clearly "BE" not "BR". At the moment they are sucked in WD-40, so maybe I will find some faded markings after removing the surface rust.

I closely inspected the heavy leg irons, which I bought from an English dealer about one year ago, and could not found any more markings on them. They are indeed similar to your Griffin LI in Alex' book, but they are almost identical to the LI from the West Midland Police Museum on page 84. In the text on page 83 Alex wrote that these irons weight 10 kg (mine are "only" 3.5 kg), but maybe this weight was declared wrong. I guess that Alex was not allowed to take the restraint out of the showcase to reweigh it.

Regards,
Guenter aka Atame
www.atame.info