Very Cool Looking Bizarre and Wicked Painted English or German SCOLD'S BRIDLE or MASK OF SHAME Torture Device. ~~~ Mash of Shame (Scolder's Bridle) a tool of torture, invented in Britain at the end of the XVI century. The first mention of this device is a reference made of torture in 1567. In those times the punishment was quite common and used mainly on women or especially grumpy individuals, those convicted of witchcraft or violent behavior. ~~~ EXTRAVAGANCE WAS NOT WELL TOLERATED in medieval Germany. Wealthy citizens and members of nobility could wear sumptuous garments and drape their homes in finery but not those of lower socio-economic status. The size of a man's collar, the fabric used to make his cloak, even the colors in which he dressed, were regulated by law. ~~~ Commoners who dared to wear the symbols of the upper class were fined for their chutzpah. Restoring the social order, though, required more than a monetary payoff. The punishment for such a violation was public shaming, and in 17th-century Germany, as well as elsewhere in central Europe, England and Scotland, not much was more humiliating than the Schandmaske, or shame mask. ~~~ One who got drunk and sloppy at a tavern or who was dirty and unkempt could be sentenced to wearing a mask with a pig's snout. ~~~ Narcissism was just one of several "antisocial" and illegal behaviors punished by the schandmaske, says Hirte. Each social transgression was represented by different facial characteristics. A man who got drunk and sloppy at a tavern or who was dirty and unkempt could be sentenced to wearing a mask with a pig?s snout, for example. A woman caught gossiping might be forced into a long-tongued, large-eared mask which connoted how she eavesdropped and spoke out of turn about the business of others. A man who was ?evil? wore a mask sporting the imagery of the devil: horns, snakes, and molded figures of the fiend itself. ~~~ Each was "a way to strip the wearer of identity and create an image outside the norm", explains Allie Terry-Fritsch, professor of art history at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Respectable citizens were not gluttons. Respectable citizens didn't refuse to bathe. Those were the behaviors of a pig.Shame masks were "a way of separating law-abiders from law breakers," Terry-Fritsch continues. "It makes it easier if the offender is visualized as a monster or outside the social order." Joining in to the shaming of a community member for unacceptable behavior was a way of preserving one's own status and honor. ~~~ . DEAR BIDDERS, Please View More Detailed Close-Up Images by visiting our website - Sofedesignauctions.com ~ Thank you ! Detailed condition reports are not included in this catalog. For additional information, including condition reports, please contact us at info@sofedesignauctions.com