Stuff of the Ages
For many, their
knowledge of what is known in Chinese as Dōngxī dǔ zuǐ, in
Japanese as Sutaffu gyagu and in Korean as mulgeon gaegeu is based on their
viewing of the more modern use of the Stuff gag in the bondage arts of the Far
East. Here at the British Institute of
Artistic Silence, however, our expert historians have uncovered evidence of the
use of this method of silencing others in the Western world as well.
It is possible
that early traders like Marco Polo, as well as bringing things like spices, rice
and silk from their travels, also brought this method to their home countries
as well, but our research has uncovered some truly stunning examples of the use
of this silencing method in more recent European history.
Take this
example, based on contemporaneous reports from Paris at the time of the
Terror. It involves one Madame DuPont,
who was the housekeeper for one of the local revolutionary leaders. The reports state that she was surprised by
someone who had broken into her master’s house, searching for information on
nobles that were being held in various prisons.
According to
her statement to the authorities, the man wore a simple black frock coat, pantaloons
and black buckled shoes, but he had a black cloth covering the lower half of
his face, and a pistol in his hand.
Madame DuPont was wearing typical peasant clothing – a simple white
blouse with elbow length sleeves, a long black skirt with a purple apron on the
front, and a ribbed girdle round her waist as well as black clogs. She was also wearing her red Revolutionary
cap on her head, her brown hair neatly held under it.
He made her sit
on a wooden chair, and pulled her hands behind her back, using rough brown rope
to secure her wrists together, and then to secure her elbows to the chair
back. Kneeling in front of her, her
folded her skirt back and secured her ankles, before he looked round and
grabbed a white kerchief which was sitting on top of the laundry basket nearby.
By all
accounts, Madame DuPont was expecting him to tie it round her head, over her
mouth – but instead he pinched her nose closed, and when she opened her mouth
to breath he stuffed the napkin into her mouth, as much as he could – but it
forced her lips open, and a lot of the cloth was still outside her mouth when
he had finished. She could only struggle
and mewl as he went to search the rest of the house - the cloth was stuffed in
so tightly, she had no way of pushing it out again with her tongue.
She was found
by her master when he returned later that night – and only served him for a few
more weeks before he himself fell victim to the Terror, and she escaped to the
countryside…
We do have,
however, this portrait commissioned by her master prior to his – demise. Note the expression in Madame’s eyes…
At a very
similar line, on the Maine coast of the freshly independent United States, the
Lady of the Belvoir mansion had two unexpected guests. In her case, it was two French smugglers, who
were expecting a delivery from their suppliers in the bay, but who had also
fallen under suspicion from the local Militia.
So they waited for the Captain – one Captain Anthony Belvoir – to leave
with his med before they entered the house and took his wife captive.
She was true
beauty, as you can see from this print which was created from her memories of
the event. She was indeed dressed as the
lady of the area should – a very expensive dress with a deep neck lien from
Boston, grey with white spots and a white lace front and trim. But the two men were very persuasive –
securing her wrists together behind her back, and then using a white head scarf
to keep her quiet as she stood there, watching one of the men as he knelt by
the fireplace the second looking through the window that looked out to sea with
a telescope.
Her eyes were
wide open, shocked at the liberties they had taken with her – after all, her husband
was an important man! But the cloth was
half hanging from her mouth so she could only watch – until the door of the
room was suddenly opened, and her maid walked in.
A maid who ten
minutes later was on the chaise longue, bound and gagged like her mistress
while the two intruders kept watch.
Again, we are fortunate here to have a drawing of the scene – although
the poor maid does not appear in this…
Moving on to
our next exhibit, we have here a pastoral scene in a small English town, dating
from the early Victorian era. The lady
at the centre of this exhibit has been identified as one Hannah Corbeck, who
was the wife of a wealthy farmer in Dorset, and lived in the farmhouse with her
mother in law, Ethel Corbeck.
At the time
this scene was painted, there was a notorious burglar at large known as The
Charmer – because he would charm his way into houses, and then secure the lady
of the house before taking her valuables.
From the police reports, we have been able to determine the likely
course of events that led to the scene you see here. It was early afternoon, and Hannah Corbeck
had been visiting friends before returning to the farmhouse. As she entered, a horse drawn carriage drew
up, and the young man asked for direction to a nearby farm.
She offered him
those directions, but as she turned he pressed the end of a pistol against her
back, and made her walk in. Hannah was
conservatively dressed – a grey and blue silk robe with a brown sash round her
waist, black boots, and a bonnet. The
man forced her into her house, and at least allowed her to remove her bonnet before
he secured her wrists together behind her back with twine, and made her sit on
a chair.
She would have
protested – but he produced a white handkerchief and pushed it into her mouth,
with many admonishments not to try and push it out as he knelt down and secured
her ankles over the leather of her boots.
He started to
search the room she was in, as she twisted round – but the cords were too
tight, too thin, and although the cloth in her mouth was soaking up all the
saliva, she was too petrified to try and call for help – so when she heard her
mother in law return, she had no way to warn her. All she could do was listen as the man
slipped out, and she heard the muffled but surprised yelp, some talking – and
then silence.
The man came
back into the room, checked Hannah was all right, and then went to search the
rest of the house. She could hear the muffled calls, but it was only when she
heard the man leave that she got the courage to stand up and hop to the door.
Ethel was sat
in the hallway, wearing her cream blouse and her dress with the red skirt and
the waistcoat of gold silk - but like
her, she too had her wrists secured behind her back, her ankles tied together –
and half a handkerchief sticking out of her mouth.
They exchanged
a few grunts, before she jumped over and sat with her, trying to free each
other – without success, according to the reports of the police detective,
until her husband returned…
As you examine
the painting, note the effective use of shadowing, and also the expression on
Hannah’s face as she hears the muffled conversation. Truly exquisite and evocative…
The art of the
political cartoonist is a sorely neglected area for those who do not regard the
use of caricature as true art. This is
not a view we share here at this institute – indeed, we have a fine collection
of US Forces magazines that make sue of that format – but this one in
particular may catch your eye.
IT dates from the
1930s, and shows Joseph Goebbels – shall we say, explaining his approach to
information dissemination to an unfortunate woman. While one is tempted to see parallels with
certain other political representatives today, what I want to tell you is the
truth that inspired the way the woman is displayed here.
The real woman
was Frau Sigrid von Neumann, the wife of the bürgermeister of a small town in Bavaria. The way she was dressed, according to police
reports, is very similar to what you see here – a long dress with a white apron
over the skirt, her blonde hair in a plait down her back, and black laced
boots.
What she was
not aware of as she walked round the market that day was that she was being
watched by two men who had - shall we say, an issue with some decisions her
husband had made, and lost their jobs as a result. They followed her home, and when she placed
her basket on the kitchen table, they burst in and grabbed her.
One of the men
pulled her hands behind her back, holding her wrists together while the second
picked up a ball of butcher’s twine and used it to secure her wrists
together. She was then made to sit on a
chair by the wooden table, struggling as the man continued to hold her, and the
second man took the twine under the seat and used it to lash her ankles
together before he cut it free with a knife.
He then stood
up and pulled a dish towel from the table, folding it and using it to blindfold
her – and yes, they did move her hair plait to trap in under the cloth band,
while his partner told her not to scream, they were not going to hurt her. I think you can imagine her response to that
– the good lady started to scream for help, which is why the second towel ended
up in her mouth and hanging out from between her lips.
One of them
stayed with her while the other ransacked the house – but they were both caught
when her husband returned unexpectedly, and with he local chief of police as
well. Very bad luck…
On the other
hand, her situation did prove an influence to raising much greater evils…
Let us move to
a more recent time – although I suppose to you, sixty years still seems several
lifetimes ago. What we have here is a
modern American classic, is perhaps a little more to our tastes than many.
This was
painted by a sixteen year-old girl called Mandy, and depicts her mother Ashley,
in a rather silent pose as you can see.
According to Mandy, it actually started as a dare when her mother wished
to impart some secrets of being a good housewife to her daughter.
So Mandy
decided it would be a good idea to teach her mother something in return –
something she had learned from reading some very specialised magazines. Now, her mother was very conservatively
dressed – a brown short sleeved dress with a white collar, a white lace
underskirt, hose and brown kitten heels.
Of course, her
mother wished to continue being the educator.
But Mandy was very good at chemistry, and as such she employed a bottle
of chloroform to knock her mother out for a little while…
When Ashley
woke up, she found Mandy had taken her shoes off, crossed her ankles and tied
them together with a brown silk headscarf.
Obviously, she tried to move her hands round from behind her and undo
the scarf – only to find a second scarf was holding her wrists together.
And there was a
third brown scarf related issue – one which became clear as she looked down and
saw the rolled up end sticking out from between her lips. She did try to get free after that – and then
she saw Mandy doing the preliminary sketches.
What followed,
according to Mandy, was great fun. Ashley,
on the other hand, had some choice words to say according to her daughter.
Such a pity
they were all muffled – but a remarkably good portrait for one so young…
Let me offer
one more exhibit to you – from the now classic “True Crime” fad of the sixties
and seventies. This one is an
interesting one – have you heard of rotoscoping? It’s a technique used in films where an
animator draws over live actions. There’s
also the work of artists producing prints based on photos.
This particular
one illustrates a break-in at a Manhattan apartment, which the resident
disturbed when she returned from a cocktail party. She was wearing a red cocktail cress, red heels
and a red scarf holding back her black hair, pearls round her neck.
Strangely
enough, when her housekeeper found her the next morning, she still had her
pearls on. This exhibit was derived from the photographs taken by the CSI
attending – at some cost, it has to be said.
She was lying
on herbed, unconscious,. White rope used to hold her crossed wrists together
behind her back and her ankles so that they could not be moved apart. She still had her pearls, and her earrings,
so robbery may not have been the motive, but someone had stopped her from raising
the alarm – in her case, with a red teddy nightie which had been stuffed into her
mouth, the edges sticking out from her lips.
As it turned
out, she was targeted to allow someone to carry out a shooting of someone in a
nearby building – and she woke up soon after the photos were taken. But we are grateful that someone managed to
create this memory of her predicament.
So, we hope you
enjoyed this brief viewing – questions?
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