 In most reports the sale was announced in advance , perhaps by advertisement in a local newspaper . It usually took the form of an auction , often at a local market , to which the wife would be led by a halter ( usually of rope but sometimes of ribbon ) around her neck , or arm . Often the purchaser was arranged in advance , and the sale was a form of symbolic separation and remarriage , as in a case from Maidstone , where in January 1815 John Osborne planned to sell his wife at the local market . However , as no market was held that day , the sale took place instead at " the sign of ' The Coal @-@ barge , ' in Earl Street " , where " in a very regular manner " , his wife and child were sold for £ 1 to a man named William Serjeant . In July the same year a wife was brought to Smithfield market by coach , and sold for 50 guineas and a horse . Once the sale was complete , " the lady , with her new lord and master , mounted a handsome curricle which was in waiting for them , and drove off , seemingly nothing loath to go . " At another sale in September 1815 , at Staines market , " only three shillings and four pence were offered for the lot , no one choosing to contend with the bidder , for the fair object , whose merits could only be appreciated by those who knew them . This the purchaser could boast , from a long and intimate acquaintance . " 
