Caption
Instruments of torture: Strangling pear, in open and closed position. The mouth pear, also known as the torture pear or spreading pear, is an instrument of torture and belongs to the so-called skull screws. It consists of two or more spoon-shaped shells, which are folded together in the pear shape that gives them their name and connected to each other at the tapered end so that they can move. Inside there is a simple threaded mechanism that can be used to push the parts apart by moving the thread, usually by means of a screw at the tapered end. Apart from the painful locking of the jaw that this device entailed, it could also be stretched so far that teeth or jaws could break. It was also used for the extremely painful stretching of the vagina and anus. / The choke pear (or pear of anguish) is the modern name for a type of instrument displayed in some museums, consisting of a metal body (usually pear-shaped) divided into spoon-like seg
Date
19th century
Credit line
Photo12/imageBROKER/Sunny Celeste
Reference
BRK26B06_203
Model release
No
Property release
No
License type
Rights managed
Available size
51,9Mb (928,3Kb) / 12,1in x 16,7in / 3625 x 5000 (300dpi)