OBJECT FILE
The witch in a bottle (Pitt Rivers Museum 1926.6.1)
FOLLOWPitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, United Kingdom
THE OBJECT
A silvered glass bottle with a spherical base and a resin stopper, accession number 1926.6.1. The folklorist and archaeologist Margaret Murray collected it in 1915 from an old woman in Hove, Sussex; it came to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1926 and is shown with its original handwritten label. It was lent to the Ashmolean for the exhibition Spellbound in 2018.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
The label: 'Obtained in 1915 from an old lady living in Hove, Sussex. She remarked: "and they do say there be a witch in it, and if you let un out there'll be a peck o' trouble".' Most English witch bottles were charms against witches; this one was said to hold one. The museum says the witch 'was never freed, upon the warning of the original owner', and has no plans to open it.
WHERE IT IS NOW
On public display — kept by Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1926.6.1). Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, United Kingdom.
PROVENANCE · 2 ENTRIES
TRACE ON THE MAP →1915 – 1926
Margaret Murray (from 'an old lady living in Hove')
Hove, Sussex, United Kingdom · not placed on the map
Year-level.
Source: Pitt Rivers Museum, 1926.6.1 (collected by Margaret Murray); the museum's label ('Obtained in 1915 from an old lady living in Hove, Sussex')
1926 — CURRENT LOCATION
Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, United Kingdom
Lent to the Ashmolean for Spellbound (2018).
Source: Pitt Rivers Museum, accession 1926.6.1; Oxford Magazine ('acquired by the Pitt Rivers in 1926 and is displayed in the museum with its original, handwritten label')
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
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