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https://www.decorativecollective.com/dealers/walpolesA locking steel collar made by Hiatt of Birmingham to be worn perhaps by a cow, engraved in fine script with the name of the owner; ‘James Sumpter. Brigg’ and dating to around 1800.
13 in x 8.25 in
The family of Sumpter were recorded from the 18th century as farmers in the area of Brigg, North Lincolnshire. As late as 1905, a Mrs Thomas Sumpter is recorded as ‘cowkeeper in Wrawby Street’.
Thomas Griffin Hiatt's Company enters the Birmingham trade directories during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, around 1780, when Thomas Hiatt set up shop at 26 Masshouse Lane in Birmingham. He advertised as a maker of ‘Prisoners’ Handcuffs, Felon’s Leg Irons and Gang Chains’ many of which, and including this example, are stamped with the Hiatt name. On page 384 of ‘Marking Time, Objects, People, and their Lives’, is an entry for an Ankle or Leg Iron’, the text goes on to state that a similar shackle is held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, described in the past as a ‘Slave Ownership Bracelet’ and ‘identification band’.