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Search results: 4207

4242 – Seance Painting

A painting in acrylic, depicting three women sitting at a table holding a seance. Two of the women appear to be clients, and are wearing Victorian-style dress. The woman in the centre is evidently the medium. She has long black hair and is dressed in black, and her eyes are without iris or pupil. She is wearing a gauze veil decorated with stars and a crescent moon. Above her head is the head of a spirit, shadowy except for eyes and stars and a crescent moon that echo the medium's veil. There is a patch of bright light in the centre of the red tablecloth. By Catherine Gogerty.

4288 – Glass Phial

An empty glass phial or test tube, sealed with a cork with bluish discolouration. The discolouration suggests that the tube held a liquid that has since evaporated.

4287 – Brown Glass Bottle Containing Liquid

A small brown glass bottle, with a glass stopper, half full of a clear liquid.

4286 – Green Bottle Containing Small Object

A hexagonal green glass bottle containing an unknown small squarish object adhering to the side. The bottle is sealed with a cork. Two of the sides are fluted, and one has the words 'Not to be taken' moulded into it.

4285 – Bottle Containing Mercury

A plastic bottle, very heavy, containing mercury. The bottle has a white plastic screw cap, and part of a label (the rest torn off) with the words 'Mercury' and 'Laboratory Reagent'.

4284 – Bottle Containing Cross

A short clear glass bottle, containing a clear liquid, and, resting on the bottom, a small cross hand carved out of wood, plus what may be a rusty pin. There is also some kind of greyish powdery deposit. The top of the bottle is sealed with reddish clay. The cross suggests that the liquid may be holy water. Alternatively it may be swamp water.

4283 – Bottle Containing Powder

A short brown glass bottle containing a pale-coloured powder, and sealed with greyish wax.

4282 – Alligator Skin

A rolled-up, roughly rectangular piece of alligator skin, of a rich golden/reddish brown colour, with darker markings. There is considerable variation in the size of the scales, with the ones on the edges much larger than the ones in the middle. There are also some lines of tiny holes, as if the skin has been put through a sewing machine.

4281 – Wooden Cross

A simple handcrafted cross made from a reddish-coloured hardwood. There are various symbols incised shallowly on one side of the cross: groups of dots joined by lines, which could possibly have an astrological significance; and a pennant with vertical lines and a star. There is what appears to be the head of a very small nail driven into the underside of one of the arms of the cross.

4248 – Kuchi Coin Dress

A child's robe made of multi-coloured striped fabric decorated with numerous objects of amuletic significance. They include bells, coins, glass beads, coloured threads, semi-precious stones and elaborate pieces of fine metalwork. From Afghanistan.

4280 – Scold’s Bridle Mask

A scold's bridle with unusually elaborate decorative elements, including horns, giving it a mask-like appearance. Made of now rusty sheet metal (iron).

4279 – Good Luck Pieces

A set of eight Good Luck Pieces (lucky coins or tokens), made from various different copper alloys, and varying in colour from a bright brass colour through a copper colour to a dull dark brown. They are contained in card and cellulose coin pockets with descriptions written on them in ballpoint pen.

4278 – Goddess Figure

A small(ish) hand sculpted Goddess figure, silver-grey in colour. She is naked and standing with her arms raised. There is a red glass jewel in the centre of her forehead. She is standing on a heavy block of stone, probably marble.

4277 – Stang

A stang consisting of a straight tree branch with the bark left on, with the stang top made of antler carved into a u-shape. This resembles the base of an Egyptian was-sceptre, but smaller. The stang is also shod with a thimble-shaped piece of brass with decorative incised rings.

4276 – Staff

A staff consisting of what appears to be a straight tree branch, varnished to a mahogany colour, and with some turned decoration and the lower end painted gold, and with a top turned out of another piece of wood into the shape of a Djed Pillar - a series of rings representing the backbone of the Egyptian God Osiris.

4275 – Set Staff

A staff consisting of a shaft of black-painted wooden dowel, with a carved wooden top, painted gold, in the shape of a (very) stylised head of the Egyptian God Set. There are six indentations gouged out of the upper surface of the head, and also what appears to be a small, roughly circular, piece of onyx attached to it.

4274 – Lotus Staff

A staff consisting of a green-painted wooden shaft, with a round foot of turned wood, and a top in the shape of a lotus, made from thin sheet metal painted beige.

4273 – Spear

A spear that may well be an African assegai (throwing spear) adapted for magical use. It has a small blade secured to a wooden shaft with a long cylinder of metal. The shaft is partly wrapped with dark red cord (secured with black gaffer tape), probably added for the purposes of magical ritual.

4272 – Spear

A simple spear consisting of a black-painted length of dowel for the shaft and a black-painted blade made of sheet metal (probably copper or brass under the paint).

4271 – Sistrum

A sistrum (a ritual percussion instrument that originated in Ancient Egypt), with a wooden handle and an elongated hoop made of brass. The wooden handle is turned and may be a repurposed commercially-made item; it has a brass end inscribed with a small equal-armed cross. Immediately above the handle there is an attachment made of sheet copper with impressed decoration and a depiction of the face of the Egyptian Goddess Hathor on both the front and the back. Above this is the hoop, made of thick brass sheet, with three copper wires across it, each with four copper discs, which produce a sound when the sistrum is shaken.

4270 – Candle Snuffers

A pair of brass candle snuffers (not quite identical), each consisting of a thin round brass rod, with a twisted section, and a bell-shaped end, one with soot inside, and the other apparently not used. This one has the end detached from the handle. One has a hooked end to the handle, and the other has a small sphere on the end.

4269 – Censer

A large decorative brass church censer, with three long chains for hanging/swinging. There are cherub faces surrounded by multiple small wings where each chain passes through a hole in the censer (this is how the two halves of the censer are held together).

4268 – Lectern

A small brass lectern, probably intended for use in a church, with quite a simple design. Made from sheet brass with pierced quatrefoil decoration and a circular stand.

4267 – Crozier

A tall brass church crozier, similar in style to the candlesticks 4265, but with a plain round base and thinner twisted stem. It is designed to be stood in one place rather than carried. The top has rather delicate leaf-like trifoliate decoration.

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