368 – Vase: Fart bottle

Physical description:

Unusually shaped pottery vase, with a narrow neck and a brown glaze with wavy dark lines.

Museum classification:

Herbs and Healing

Information:

This is one of the bottles displayed in the museum at one point as 'fart bottles'. According to the label, one form of magical healing involved the wise woman collecting the methane evacuated by the patient in a bottle and then setting it alight, thus burning away the patient's illness. A nice idea, but unfortunately this bottle looks as if it was made in the 1960s - probably not old enough to be part of such a tradition if one ever existed. (However, see the Hans Baldung Grien picture 1363.)

Resource:

Object

Materials:

Ceramic

Copyright ownership:

Copyright to The Museum of Witchcraft Ltd.

This is one of the bottles displayed in the museum at one point as 'fart bottles'. According to the label, one form of magical healing involved the wise woman collecting the methane evacuated by the patient in a bottle and then setting it alight, thus burning away the patient's illness. A nice idea, but unfortunately this bottle looks as if it was made in the 1960s - probably not old enough to be part of such a tradition if one ever existed. (However, see the Hans Baldung Grien picture 1363.)