557 - Baroque oath skull

Baroque oath skull dated 1788, human skullcap, the top engraved with a central chalice motif flanked by symbols of the sun and moon, framed by alchemical and occult symbols; mounted on a dark-stained, twisted-ribbed wooden base; a Baroque ‘cabinet of curiosities’ artefact of artistic and cultural-historical significance; signs of age; conservation issues; H 40 cm. Info: As early as the Middle Ages, ‘oath skulls’ were used as objects of jurisdiction; the Feme courts reached the height of their power in the 15th century and increasingly took on the character of strictly organised secret societies of the ‘initiates’, who were bound by oath to absolute secrecy, due to the increasing secrecy of the proceedings and the immediate execution of death sentences handed down, fear and dread of the Feme spread; the last ‘secret court’ was held in 1806, and oath skulls thus also found their place in the cabinets of curiosities, Source: Georg Laue, *Memento Mori*, p. 168, and the internet.