111 – Shark’s teeth
- Physical description:
- 40 fossilised shark's teeth. Originally with a sacking bag, but the bag was lost in the 2004 flood.
- Museum classification:
- Divination
- Size:
- various sizes kept in bowl 145 x 145mm
- Information:
These were used like casting stones to foretell the future, or to make charms to cure chilblains.
Original text by Cecil Williamson: 'This bag full of fossilized sharks' teeth, both great and small, was at one time the pride of old granny Rowe's life, for it was her charm bag by means of which she could work all manner of wonders from foretelling the future to curing chilblains. This wonder-working gran lived at Bridport during the 1902 to 1917 period. One could write a book describing the numerous methods by which granny Rowe used these fossilized sharks' teeth to make her castings and charmings.'
Scarborough Museum has a fossilised shark's tooth collected in Kent in 1912, which was used as a "cramp stone" - a charm to protect against cramp (information provided by Tabitha Cadbury - see her report 'The Clarke Collection of Charms and Amulets' in the museum library.)- Resource:
- Object
- Materials:
- Stone
- Copyright ownership:
- Copyright to The Museum of Witchcraft Ltd.
These were used like casting stones to foretell the future, or to make charms to cure chilblains.
Original text by Cecil Williamson: 'This bag full of fossilized sharks' teeth, both great and small, was at one time the pride of old granny Rowe's life, for it was her charm bag by means of which she could work all manner of wonders from foretelling the future to curing chilblains. This wonder-working gran lived at Bridport during the 1902 to 1917 period. One could write a book describing the numerous methods by which granny Rowe used these fossilized sharks' teeth to make her castings and charmings.'
Scarborough Museum has a fossilised shark's tooth collected in Kent in 1912, which was used as a "cramp stone" - a charm to protect against cramp (information provided by Tabitha Cadbury - see her report 'The Clarke Collection of Charms and Amulets' in the museum library.)