Replica of a restraint collar

Replica of a restraint collar. This would have been used in conjunction with manacles or a straightjacket in order to prevent an insane inmate from biting his/her own body. Similar to A600285, but much less wide. The original, probably from the late 19th or early 20th century, was found around 1930 in a chest in the cellar at Hanwell Asylum, the asylum on the outskirts of London whose superintendant, John Conolly (1794-1866), famously renounced all instruments of mechanical restraint in favor of 'moral treatment,' that is, regular labour under constant close surveillance.