German “Spiked Rabbit” Torture Device, 17th C

Description

Known in German as a “Gespickter Hase”, meaning “spiked hare”, these spiked flesh
rollers were used in conjunction with the rack or other devices to elicit confessions of guilt.
It was a controlled means of torture which often resulted in severe infections. Before
antibiotics septic infections often ended in a long agonizing death to the victim. This
museum-quality example came from a torture collection in England. Length 16 1/2″, width
4 1/2″. A few of the spikes have loosened and were re-fastened in a restoration. A very
terrible and painful torture device. Grip ferule ring is loose, probably due to wood
shrinkage over time.  A similar instrument was featured in the 1893 exhibition of the “Collection of Torture Instruments from the Royal Castle of Nuremburg”, and is described in the catalog: “Long Spiked Wooden Roller, with numerous rows of long spikes.  Known as a “spiked hare”.  The victim was laid on a bench or stretched on a ladder, and the “spiked hare” was rolled over his naked body, or, to vary it, he was rolled over the spikes.  Some of the old writers describe this torture as being most fearful.”