Charms and Amulets-Exhibition

Die Wellcome Collection in London zeigt bis Februar eine Ausstellung von Amuletten und Zaubersprüchen aus dem Mittelalter. Unbedingt die Gallerie mit den Amuletten ansehen, zu jedem Dings gibt’s Hintergrundinfos. Das Bild rechts ist ein durchstochenes Schafsherz gegen Hexenzauber.

“A cow keeper, who was one of the old school and originally came from Devonshire, had the misfortune to incur the intense wrath of a man of vindictive temper. He threatened to bewitch the poor man’s cows, and two of then died. The cow keeper there upon, took the heart of one of the dead animals, stuck it all over with pins and nails and hung it up in the Chimney of his house… such action is supposed to be of such a serious nature that it brought about an arrangement of a more or less satisfactory character.” Edward Lovett, ‘Magic in Modern London’, p. 67

Sheep’s heart, stuck with nails and pins. Said to have been used to break a spell cast by a witch over a farmer’s cattle.

Felicity Powell – Charmed Life: The solace of objects, mehr Infos vom History Blog:

The amulets were collected by amateur folklorist Edward Lovett (1852–1943) who had a particular fascinating with superstitions. Over the years he accumulated 1,400 beautiful, odd, creepy pieces which he first displayed in an exhibition at the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1916. Most of the collection belongs to Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum now but has been loaned to the Wellcome again almost a hundred years later.

Lovett was a cashier at a London bank who lived in Croydon. His real passion, though, was collecting objects people carried for good luck. He would roam the East End slums and docks of London at night looking for interesting specimens to buy off of sailors and hawkers. Because people came from all over the world to London’s docks, he ended up amassing an enormous quantity and variety of charms, so many that his wife walked out on him in 1925.