HIATT 104 Approx mid 1800s Genuine Backstrap Darby Victorian Police Handcuffs in GREAT condition

Happy Handcuffs day! (Feb 20th) These are a Victorian pair of HIATT 104 Darby Backstrap handcuffs from the mid - late 1800s.

These differ from my other HIATT 104 handcuffs, in that these are a genuine backstrap or back strap. This means, instead of having a more modern hinge style where the two sections mate and a pin is pushed in to keep them connected, these instead have an elongated tongue at the end of the shackle which is fed through a specially made gap in the lock tube and folded back on itself to create a sturdy hinge. It is quite an elegant system, really.

In the early 1800s, Darby handcuffs had various hinge styles, including backstrap and pinned hinge. There are also later hinges called False backstraps, like on my JG Army handcuffs which was a somewhat similar visual style but instead of folding a tongue over to create the hinge, the shackle was made more chunky and a hole drilled through it, at which point the lock tube would be permanently connected through the hole in the shackle.

I am incredibly happy to have an actual backstrap handcuff in my collection! They had been in the original owner's family for many many years. Handed down. The seller's Granddad had them since before WW2 and I would imagine his dad gave them to him since these are from the 1800s, given this old hinge design. I got a great deal on them. I could not fully tell from the images but once I got them, I knew for sure what I had! They had some surface rust but were in amazing working order. I used a bit of super fine wire wool, some peek metal cleaner, Autosol polish and Renaissance wax polish and now they look a million miles better.

They are less heavy than my other 1800s pair of HIATT, by about 100 grams lighter (these are 397g, whereas my more bulky 1800s pair weigh 496g. They are what I would call a large size. I have somewhat large wrists and there's decent room left when wearing them.

Best estimates I have seen from people with more experience of varying models, are that mine are an early Hiatt backstrap pair from approx 1850 ish (mid 19th century) So at the time of making this video, they are probably 160 years old and still work smoothly!

Enjoy!