So much has been said about the Lilly shackles that I thought I would post a picture of the Lilly leg irons in my collection. The standard was the five link iron but others were made and different styles of chain were used. It is not known if the type of chain was done by the factory (Navy). There is documentation about how hard it was to walk and go up and down ladders while on board ships.
There is a lot of information on the
Handcuff.Org main page including our research on Lilly which can be downloaded. The link is
http://handcuffs.org/LillyResearch.pdf
Ron
Thanks Ron, it's nice to see the different variations in one photo.
Matt
djhalfdead 19 May 2019
#3Really nice leg irons, Ron! Thanks for sharing!
Ron,Thank you for the huge amount of work that you put into your the study of the history of the Lilly iIrons
Fred Pittella 22 May 2019
#5Ron nice work! George glad to see your posting...
Hope to make it to Lancaster this year Would be Great to see everyone!!!!
I recently obtained two more leg irons, with the standard five links, and found each had an interesting feature. One set did not have the lead plugs. It looks like they were never finished and the other had too much lead on one side, which would not allow the bolt to completely close the cuff. Also the hand shackle pictured on the research paper, does not have the lead finished so that the splatter of the lead was never cleaned and the pour was also slightly too much so that when fully closed the plug started to come out.
I have never seen any markings on any of the leg irons.
Ron
Fred Pittella wrote:
Ron nice work! George glad to see your posting...
Hope to make it to Lancaster this year Would be Great to see everyone!!!!
Fred,
I don’t know how you do it, but you always come up with a Winner ! The sets of Lilly irons are absolutely great .I will bet it took more than a week to collect them all . But I may have to take back my bet , knowing your passion for collecting . You not only. had the irons they were accompanied with all their keys , that showed how many different kinds that have been made. Keep up the good search .
George
Unknown / guest 22 Aug 2019
#8Ggoebel wrote:
Fred Pittella wrote:
Ron nice work! George glad to see your posting...
Hope to make it to Lancaster this year Would be Great to see everyone!!!!
Fred,
I don’t know how you do it, but you always come up with a Winner ! The sets of Lilly irons are absolutely great .I will bet it took more than a week to collect them all . But I may have to take back my bet , knowing your passion for collecting . You not only. had the irons they were accompanied with all their keys , that showed how many different kinds that have been made. Keep up the good search .
George
