Single Lock handcuffs made by the Mattatuck Manufacturing Co. owned by The Great Houdini was one of his best props in his escape act, in which he would free himself from handcuffs, chains, ropes and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope or suspended in water. Perhaps his most famous act, the Chinese Water Torture, saw him suspended upside-down in a locked glass and steel cabinet of water. The cuffs are certainly a daunting obstacle, yet Houdini could if need be unlock them even without the key, by applying just the right amount of pressure with his hand. The cast iron cuffs have the key in the lock, and the mechanism is fully operational. Like Houdini's collection of keys, he bequeathed the cuffs to his escape artist brother Theo, who performed under the name of Hardeen, with instructions to destroy them. Instead, he kept and later gave them to Sidney Radner, curator of the Houdini Museum in Las Vegas. The cuffs w/adjoining chain are EX with a smattering of nicks, scratches and white spots. They come with a LOA from Radner. Nonpareil Houdini artifact.