Pear of anguish

Uncommon card · No. 76550

The pear of anguish, also known as choke pear or mouth pear, is a device of disputed use invented in the early modern period. The mechanism consists of a pear-shaped metal body divided into spoon-like segments that can be spread apart with a spring or by turning a key. Its proposed functionality as a torture device is to be variously inserted into the mouth and other parts of the body and then expanded to gag or mutilate the victim; its historical use as a torture device is controversial. Some scholars have disputed historical accounts of the pear as being suspiciously implausible. While there exist some examples from the early modern period, some of them open with a spring, and the removable key is there not to open the mechanism, but rather to close it. At least one of the older devices is held closed with a cap at the end, suggesting it could not have been opened after inserting it into an orifice without actively holding it shut. There is no contemporary evidence of such a torture device...

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