RESTRAINTS AND PUNISHMENTS Wrought iron slave collar with lo

Sale 2377 - Lot 11

Price Realized: $ 10,000

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

RESTRAINTS AND PUNISHMENTS. Wrought iron slave collar with lock. Two pieces of semi-circular iron, each approximately 9 inches long; joined together by a fixed "hook-in-eye." To each end of the two pieces is another open hook-in-eye into which is fixed a primitive but effective tubular locking mechanism. The two semi-circles bear repeated crescent moon designs. Smooth old patina consistent with age. Central or West Africa, late 18th to mid nineteenth century

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Additional Details

The wide, outer edge of each of the two pieces of the collar bear small overlapping semi-circular designs. These designs are similar to patterns we have observed on other such collars. It is possible that these designs might have had some specific symbolic meaning to a blacksmith of African descent. This is one of three such collars that we have observed; all have had similar incising on them. Designs like these can be seen in Faik-Nzuji's Tracing Memory: A Glossary of Graphic Signs and Symbols in African Art and Culture (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1996).