4094 – Objects Used for House Protection Magic

Physical description:

A collection of five objects used for magical house protection: a mirror with a large piece broken off; a wooden whistle; iron tongs with the points bent; a decorative metal disk, partly compressed; a large thimble, flattened.

Museum classification:

Protection

Information:

These objects were found in a 500-year-old cottage in Lutton in Devon. The mirror was within a wall,  and the other objects were in the chimney.

The mirror would have been thought to reflect away misfortune.

House protection charms are often found in or near chimneys. Most researchers argue that this is because the chimney gives access to the house for evil influences. The donor of these objects, however, suggests convincingly that the objects in the chimney were offerings to a hearth spirit dwelling within the chimney, in return for the spirit's blessing and protection, and describes the whistle as a spirit whistle. See also MWM no. 1012, a charm found in a bread oven, consisting of a thorn, a piece of cloth and a piece of cord. While the thorn, as a pointed object, may well have been viewed as a weapon against misfortune, the cloth and cord are quite likely to be some kind of symbolic votive offering. Household spirits, attached to a particular house or family, feature in many cultures - for example the Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoy (whose name literally means Household Lord). They seem to be derived from ancestral spirits, and may be connected to witches' familiar spirits.

Objects used for magical purposes were often bent or broken to symbolise the fact that they were being removed from the realm of their normal use and transferred into the magical realm. The whistle looks as if it may have had part of its internal workings gouged out.

The metal disk may have come from a piece of furniture.

The Museum's Director, Simon Costin, has suggested that what appear to be tongs may in fact be a pair of dividers, and has pointed out that dividers were used to make the inscribed house protection charms known as daisy wheels. Possibly these dividers were used to create one or more daisy wheels before being used as a protection charm themselves.

Donated by Michelle Mari Elliott, who was given them by the person who found them, Marcus Fernee.

 

 

Resource:

Object

Materials:

Metal, glass, wood

Copyright ownership:

MWM

These objects were found in a 500-year-old cottage in Lutton in Devon. The mirror was within a wall,  and the other objects were in the chimney.

The mirror would have been thought to reflect away misfortune.

House protection charms are often found in or near chimneys. Most researchers argue that this is because the chimney gives access to the house for evil influences. The donor of these objects, however, suggests convincingly that the objects in the chimney were offerings to a hearth spirit dwelling within the chimney, in return for the spirit's blessing and protection, and describes the whistle as a spirit whistle. See also MWM no. 1012, a charm found in a bread oven, consisting of a thorn, a piece of cloth and a piece of cord. While the thorn, as a pointed object, may well have been viewed as a weapon against misfortune, the cloth and cord are quite likely to be some kind of symbolic votive offering. Household spirits, attached to a particular house or family, feature in many cultures - for example the Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoy (whose name literally means Household Lord). They seem to be derived from ancestral spirits, and may be connected to witches' familiar spirits.

Objects used for magical purposes were often bent or broken to symbolise the fact that they were being removed from the realm of their normal use and transferred into the magical realm. The whistle looks as if it may have had part of its internal workings gouged out.

The metal disk may have come from a piece of furniture.

The Museum's Director, Simon Costin, has suggested that what appear to be tongs may in fact be a pair of dividers, and has pointed out that dividers were used to make the inscribed house protection charms known as daisy wheels. Possibly these dividers were used to create one or more daisy wheels before being used as a protection charm themselves.

Donated by Michelle Mari Elliott, who was given them by the person who found them, Marcus Fernee.