1288 – Ill wishing figure curse

Physical description:

Crude fabric poppet with wire arms, face drawn on with pencil, light-brown wool hair.

Museum classification:

Curses

Information:

Original text by Cecil Williamson reads In this glass box are a selection of poppet dolls as one finds them up and down the counties of Devon and Cornwall. The string-line figure is not a common type and the one made from bamboo sticks is a strange poppet, being a love doll made by the Egyptian mistress of a Devon- born navy man. A tale with a sad ending 1944. Plymouth.
Another text by Cecil Williamson reads Ill wishing figure made by an invalid wife to break the suspected association between her husband and their housekeeper.

Resource:

Object

Materials:

Fabric, metal wire, pins, wool

Original text by Cecil Williamson reads In this glass box are a selection of poppet dolls as one finds them up and down the counties of Devon and Cornwall. The string-line figure is not a common type and the one made from bamboo sticks is a strange poppet, being a love doll made by the Egyptian mistress of a Devon- born navy man. A tale with a sad ending 1944. Plymouth.
Another text by Cecil Williamson reads Ill wishing figure made by an invalid wife to break the suspected association between her husband and their housekeeper.