Description
A heavy cast iron Victorian bell used in graveyards to save the ‘deceased’ from the terror of a premature burial and waking up buried alive.
6.5 inches tall
Taphophobia is the fear of being buried alive, a fear that swept across Europe in the early 1800s and led to the hysterical practice of a graveside bell which was activated by a rope connected to strings attached to the hands, feet and head of the ‘corpse’ so the interred person could save themselves should they revive after the burial, hence the saying “saved by the bell”. The phrases ‘dead ringer’ and ‘graveyard shift’ also originated from historical attempts to prevent people from being buried alive. The heavy cast iron form of the bell prevented the alarm from sounding by wind or birds landing on it.
In Germany public fear grew to such an extent that a law was passed that every town should build a public Leichenhaus (‘‘corpse house’)’; people were legally required to bring their dead relatives there, where they were laid out on beds rigged with little bells that would sound if the corpse made any movement, with watchmen on duty listening for any sound, and inspected by doctors every day till they showed clear signs of decomposition, when they were finally released to their relatives for burial. These gruesome and extremely expensive institutions operated for decades in many parts of Germany and Austria – but there is actually not a single instance in any of these houses’ dutifully-maintained records of any of their ‘patients’ having revived.
