I think you'll find it's the type called a cushion loop facebow. I have no idea why it is actually used, although the fictional explanation is usually that it is somehow more comfortable in the corners of the mouth, but also slower.

I'd be intrigued to know what the truth is, even if I may continue to distort of in fiction!

Ah, I see what you mean now! Cushion-loop J-hooks? 

I think it’s real. The lower lip is covering the middle part of the lower facebow, and it doesn’t look like that second facebow is photoshopped in. The second facebow is attached to a cervical headgear, which makes sense since an Interlandi headgear doesn't go down far enough past the ear to fit one. The real question, at least to me, is why this headgear was being used relatively recently. Based on the photo quality and colors, it was taken after 1990. By then most of the complicated headgears had been phased out of use.