Leg-Vise

Culture German , or

Cultureperhaps Italian

Date1600s

Mediumwrought iron with chiseled decoration

Dimensions86 × 18 × 53 cm (33 7/8 × 7 1/16 × 20 7/8 in.)

ClassificationsUtilitarian Objects

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1033

DescriptionConsisting of 2 jaws of very heavy stock, the forward one hinging at its base on the rear one, and having a face worked into the iron just below the level of the grip. The rear jaw has a spiked lower end, bent backwards at a right angle so that it rests on the floor (this is likely a post-working life modification to save damage to the floor). Behind the face the screw passes through both jaws, projecting behind the rear one to accommodate the eye of the arm. The arm is of curving round stock, terminating in a heavy hexagonal nut for rotating the screw, the nut being adorned with decorative moldings. The final component is the decorative plate, which shackles the upper part of the rear jaw to its securing point.

Arm seems to have broken and been repaired, likely during working life.
ProvenanceReinhold-Kirsch, Munich, by 1928 Sold to the Brummer Gallery [object inventory card no. P5722], New York, NY, September 12, 1928 Sold to Elie Nardelman, New York, NY, June 12, 1929. Sumner Healey, New York, by 1931 Sold to the Higgins Armory Museum, Worcester, MA, December 31, 1931 Collection transfer from the Higgins Armory to the Worcester Art Museum, January 2014.

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