A common scold gets her comeuppance in the ducking stool.
Antique show room features One of A Kind rare antiques and collectibles, jewelry, tables, toys, books and much more only available at ebay!

Benches, Stools

Ducking-stools and cucking-stools are chairs formerly used for the punishment. They were both instruments for the social humiliation/censure primarily for offence of scolding or back biting, and less often for sexual offences like having an illegitimate child or prostitution. more...

Home
Antiquities (Classical,...
Architectural & Garden
Asian Antiques
Books, Manuscripts
Collectibles
Cultures, Ethnicities
Decorative Arts
Ethnographic
Furniture
Beds
Benches, Stools
1800-1900
Post-1900
Pre-1800
Bookcases
Cabinets, Armoires,...
Chairs
Desks
Dining Sets
Dressers, Vanities
Other Furniture
Sofas, Chaises
Tables, Stands
Maps, Atlases, Globes
Maritime
Musical Instruments
Other Antiques
Primitives
Rugs, Carpets
Science & Medicine
Silver
Textiles, Linens

They were technological devices which formed part of the wider method of law enforcement through social humiliation. A common alternative was a court order to recite one’s crimes or sins after Mass or in the market place on market day or informal action such as a skimmington ride.

They were usually of local manufacture and there was no standard design. Most were simply chairs into which the victim could be tied and exposed at her door or the site of her offence. Some were on wheels like a tumbrel that could dragged around the parish. Some were put on poles so that they could be plunged into water, hence ducking stool. The equivalent for men was the stocks although these were not gender specific.

There does seem to have been difference in usage between a ducking stool and a cucking stool. Although both were primarily forms of public exposure and humiliation, the cucking stool seem to have involved no water, and the victim being raised up on show.

Cucking-stools

A ballad, dating from about 1615, called `The Cucking of a Scold', illustrates the punishment:

Then was the Scold herself,
In a wheelbarrow brought,
Stripped naked to the smock,
As in that case she ought:
Neats tongues about her neck
Were hung in open show;
And thus unto the cucking stool
This famous scold did go.

The cucking-stool or Stool of Repentance, is of very ancient date, and was used by the Saxons, who called it the scealding or scolding stool. It is mentioned in Domesday Book as in use at Chester, being called cathedra stercoris, a name which seems to confirm the first of the derivations suggested in the footnote below. Tied to this stool the woman, her head and feet bare, was publicly exposed at her door or paraded through the streets amidst the jeers of the crowd.

The term cucking-stool is known to have been in use from about 1215. It means literally "defecation chair", as its name is derived from the old verb cukken which means "to defecate", rather than, as popularly believed, from the word cuckold. Commodes or chamber pots were often used as cucking-stools, hence the name.

The cucking-stool could be used for both sexes - indeed, unruly married couples were occasionally bound back-to-back and ducked (dunked). The device was most commonly used for the punishment of dishonest brewers and bakers.

Both seem have to become more common in the second half of the sixteenth century. It has been suggested {Underdown link} this reflected developing strains in gender relations, but it may simply be a result of the differential survival of records. The cucking-stool appears to have still been in use as late as the mid-18th century, with Poor Robin's Almanack of 1746 observing:

Read more at Wikipedia.org


Carved Exotic Solid Wood Bench Cabin Furniture $199.00 Set 3 Paul Mccobb Stool bench chair Mid century Eames $255.00
Vintage 16" Griswold Stepping Stool $9.99 Victorian Ecclesiastial Church Bench Seat Settle Pew $238.50
Antique Bench 50's Era? $9.99 Excellent exquisite rosewood carven stool $9.98
Antique Leather & Mahogany Stool With William 1V Legs $528.33 1074: Thirty-one (31) Canes and (1) Field Stool $400.00
2221: Louis Xvi-style Window Bench w/ Lyre Ends $250.00 2094A: 20th Century Federal Bench w/ Scrolled Crest $1,750.00
French Influence Needlepoint Footstool Victorian Era $49.00 Rare exquisite rosewoode low stool $9.99
2 Modernist Wire Stools bertoia eames knoll nelson era $199.00 Antiques Sofa-set Simply Amazing from 1800 +/- 10 years $26,000.00
4 Thonet Bar Stools Eames Era Mid-Century modern $595.00 French Provincial Upholstered Tapestry Bench Stool $489.99
Primitive Country Bench Painted Orange Vintage Antique $75.00 Antique Oak Church Pews, Carved Ends, Three 16 ft. Long $900.00
Victorian Country Rustic Pine Bar Pub Bench Seat Settle $573.61 Antique French Louis Xvi gilt caned bench # as/2606 $795.00
Excellent exquisite Tibet rosewood furniture stool  $9.00 Turn Of The Century Footstool W/ Flowered Fabric $295.00
1960s Nice Larger Size Hitchcock Fireside Chair Bench $1,495.00 beautiful Chinese old barber stool / chair $8.68
Beautiful Antique Glass Claw Foot Piano Stool!!! $19.99 Antique/Vintage Church Pew Early 1900'S $99.99
Herman Miller George Nelson Vanity Stool Ottoman $289.00 60's X Base Hollywood Regency Pair Stools Bench Eames $295.00
Needlepoint Antique Green Sage Footstool Good Condition $47.00 14Ft Antique Heartpine Wood Church Bench Pew Seat Chair $750.00
Victorian Piano Stool w/ Glass Ball Feet Estate $9.99 Mid Century Modernism Leather Ottoman Dunbar Eames Era $99.00
Swedish Mid-Century Modern Teak Ottoman Stool Bench $595.00 Urban Rustic Primitive Country Bench Vintage Antique $145.00
Animal Print Maple Vanity Bench $139.00 Danish Modern Large Ottoman Bench Eames Era Mid-Century $14.99
Gilt Ottoman Cleopatra Bench stool Blue fabric $270.00 11518: Pair Madison Square Solid Mahogany Stools $310.00
Beautiful Vintage Foot Stool - 14 X 11 X 10" Sturdy $19.90 Antique Vintage Dairy Milking Stool Seat Nice Shape $24.99
4456:Ethan Allen Maple Bow-Back Windsor Settee $475.00 10818: Gold Iron Tassel Vanity Bench Stool $250.00
 Tibet excellent rosewood barber stool  $9.99 1950's Robsjohn Gibbings folding luggage bench/stool $350.00
Mid Century Punch Metal Vanity Bench Circa 1960'S $9.99 Vintage Floral Needlepoint Footstool Gold Background $49.99
Super Shabby 'N Chic French Vanity Stool / Bench $49.99 Antique Victorian Piano Stool w/ Glass Claw Feet Nr $49.99
victorian folding footstool rare $25.00 1344: Windsor Spindle Back Bench; 71 1/2 In W, 30 7/8 I $150.00
Click to see more Benches, Stools items
Prices current as of last update, 11/20/08 5:03pm.


See also...
1800-1900, Benches, Stools, Furniture
Post-1900, Benches, Stools, Furniture
Pre-1800, Benches, Stools, Furniture

Home Contact Resources Exchange Links eBay