This object is variously described in historic inventories of Soane's collection as 'An Iron Instrument of Torture or Imprisonment' or 'a scold's mask' or 'scold's bridle'. In fact, it is a head frame, a hideous and fearful device used to torture enslaved people by preventing them from eating - a pierced metal grille covers the lower part of the face. Olaudah Equiano writes about a simillar item in his slave narrative, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, as "the iron muzzle". He records that soon after arriving in North America he was taken to Virginia where he saw a black female slave “cooking the dinner, and the poor creature was cruelly loaded with various kinds of iron machines; she had one particularly on her head, which locked her mouth so fast that she could scarcely speak; and could not eat nor drink".

This item was probably acquired with the group of shackles (M1185, M1194, M1195 and M1196) in Soane's collection. Their provenance is unknown but they were in the Museum by c.1834-35 because they are described in Soane's Description, published in late 1835, as 'implements of iron, to the honour of humanity no longer in use'. An engraving in the Description shows this headpiece hanging on the wall at the west end of the basement attached to a long chain. We know that Soane knew what the shackles were from the description of one of them (M1185) in the inventories drafted before his death which indicates its association with enslaved Africans. As this headpiece is numbered M1184 it must have hung next to M1185. The group probably came from the Caribbean plantations as Soane's acquisition of them in c.1834 coincides with the final freeing of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans there with the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act (1833). It is possible that they were given to him by an abolitionist to mark that occasion but sadly their provenance is unrecorded.

There is evidence that John Soane supported Emancipation. His Library contains pro-Emancipation pamphlets and he was very friendly with the Thornton family, for whom he worked at Moggerhanger and other houses, who were cousins of William Wilberforce, a leader of the campaign for the abolition of the trade in enslaved people. Above all, the text of the Description indicates that he intended his display of these barbaric objects to commemorate the moment of abolition, highlighting the fact that they were no longer in use.

Sir John Soane, Description, 1835, p.32

M1196, another similar
M1195, another similar
M1194, another similar
M1185, another similar